Rajya Sabha member Rasheed Masood on October 1 became the first member of Parliament (MP) to be disqualified after a special CBI court sentenced him to four years in jail in a corruption case.
On September 19, the court had convicted the Congress leader of fraudulently nominating undeserving candidates to MBBS seats allotted to Tripura in medical colleges across the country from the central pool as health minister in 1990. One of the candidates was his nephew.
Masood was the minister of state for health in the VP Singh government between 1990 and 1991.
Masood’s conviction and sentencing is the first case after the Supreme Court struck down a provision under which incumbent MPs and MLAs could avoid disqualification till pendency of the appeal against conviction in a higher court.
The fate of an ordinance designed to shield convicted lawmakers is uncertain following Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s outright rejection of the move.
The Congress came out with a guarded response, saying the party did not comment on court orders. Party general secretary Shakeel Ahmed, however, pointed out the “alleged crime” was committed when Masood was a minister in a government backed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “… By making fun of Congress in the light of the verdict, is BJP trying to hide this fact?” Ahmed tweeted.
Along with imprisonment, the court imposed costs of `60,000 on Masood, who was held guilty of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery and offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The court also awarded four-year jail terms to Gurdial Singh, a former IPS officer, and retired IAS official Amal Kumar Roy. The court, which convicted nine students in the case, handed out one-year imprisonment each to them.
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