New Delhi: Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court Wednesday sentenced Aam Aadmi Party MLA Akhilesh Pati Tripathi for assaulting a law student in 2020. The court had found Tripathi guilty in the case in March. On Wednesday, the court imposed a fine of Rs 30,000 on the accused while sentencing him to stand in the court premises for the whole day.
Besides, the accused was asked to deposit a sum of Rs 6,500 to the court and the remaining fine amount of Rs 23,500 must be handed over to the complainant. The AAP MLA was convicted by the court under Section 323 of the IPC. He was acquitted of the charges under Section 341/506 of the IPC and Section 3(1) of the SC-ST Act. The defendant stated that the incident happened due to political rivalry, which did not hold merit.
The court in its order passed on March 25, stated that it was difficult to establish the prosecution's allegation that the accused had used caste-sensitive remarks against the complainant. The court further observed that it appears that the accused did not humiliate or intimidate the complainant for being a scheduled caste.
Also read: Over 33 per cent of Delhi AAP MLAs studied only till class XII
In 2020, the AAP MLA was accused by a law student of deliberately hurting him. The student alleged that on February 7, 2020, when he was going home, the accused assaulted him at Jhandewalan Chowk, New Delhi.
"Being a scheduled caste, the MLA had also used casteist remarks against him," the complainant alleged. Significantly, on the next day of the incident which was on February 8, elections were held for the assembly elections in New Delhi. Tripathi is a three-time AAP MLA from the Model Town assembly constituency.
