Dhanbad (Jharkhand):Three-time BJP MLA from Baghmara assembly constituency Dhulu Mahto on Monday surrendered before a local court here, which sent him to judicial custody in a 10-year-old case of forcibly freeing a person from police custody.
Defence lawyer Lalan Prasad told reporters that Mahto appeared alone in the court of sub-divisional judicial magistrate Abhishek Srivasatava, due to a strike called by lawyers. The Jharkhand High Court had last month directed him to surrender in the lower court within a month (January 10).
Special court judge Akhilesh Kumar had completed hearing the appeal of the Baghmara MLA and others on August 10. The special MP/MLA court in Dhanbad had upheld a lower court's order of an 18-month jail sentence for the legislator and four others in the case.
The lower court on October 9, 2019, held Mahto and his four associates guilty of obstructing government servants and freeing a person, arrested on extortion charges, forcibly from police custody. The MLA's lawyers had subsequently challenged the order in the high court. (PTI)
