A court in Gujarat’s Navsari fined Congress MLA Anant Patel ₹ 99 in a 2017 case in which he was accused of entering the chamber of the vice-chancellor of an agriculture university and tearing the photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a students’ protest, reported NDTV.
The court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate VA Dhadhal found Mr Patel, an MLA from Vansda (Scheduled Caste) seat, guilty under Section 447 of the Indian Penal Code for criminal trespass.
Mr Patel and six others, including members of the Youth Congress, were booked under IPC Sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 353 (assault), 427 (mischief causing loss of ₹ 50 upwards), 447 (criminal trespass) and 504 (intentional insult) by Jalalpore police in May 2017.
Mr Patel and the others were accused of entering the office of the vice chancellor of Navsari Agriculture University during a student protest, behaving in an unruly manner and tearing a photo of PM Modi kept on the VC’s table.
The court found three of the accused guilty of criminal trespass and ordered them to deposit a fine of ₹ 99, failing which they will have to face simple imprisonment of seven days.
The prosecution sought maximum punishment for Mr Patel under Section 447 of IPC, which is a jail term of up to three months and a fine of ₹ 500. The defence, however. claimed the FIR was a result of political vendetta as the accused are members of the opposition Congress.
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