Congress leader and former Bollywood actor Raj Babbar has been sentenced to two years in jail over a 26 years old case of poll code violations. Babbar, who has been in several different parties like Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party, and Congress, was found guilty by the special court (MP and MLA) in Lucknow.
Babbar has been found guilty of obstructing government work and assault. Along with the prison sentence, he has also been asked to pay a fine of 8500 rupees.
The case dates back to 1996 when polling officer Krishna Singh Rana had registered a case against Babbar. In a complaint filed at Wazirganj police station, Rana had claimed that Raj Babbar, Arvind Yadav, and other people forced their way into voting booth 192 at Sultan-e-Madaris school during the Lok Sabha elections and mistreated and obstructed Rana from carrying out his official responsibilities.
Raj Babbar was in Samajwadi Party at the time and was contesting the Lucknow seat against Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Mr. Vajpayee went on to win the seat comfortably against Babbar.
In his complaint against Babbar, Krishna Singh Rana had said that Babbar and his friends cornered Rana and poll worker Shiv Kumar Singh, and falsely accused them of manipulating the election. The complaint further claimed that the polling agent had nose and throat injuries, as well as damage to his lips after the assault.
Raj Babbar was present in court when the sentence was announced sending him to jail.
