Indore: A special court, presided over by Judge Dev Kumar, on Monday, September 09, acquitted former BJP MLA Aakash Vijayvargiya, son of a powerful Madhya Pradesh minister Kailash Vijayvargiya, in a case where a building inspector of the Indore Municipal Corporation was allegedly assaulted with a cricket bat in 2019.
Besides Aakash Vijayvargiya, an MLA of the BJP which was then in the opposition, nine other accused in the case were also acquitted of various charges, including assault and criminal intimidation, by the special court set up for trial of criminal matters involving MPs/MLAs, said a defence lawyer.
“The prosecution could not prove the charges in the case in the court. Due to this, the court acquitted Vijayvargiya and nine others,” defence lawyer Udaypratap Singh Kushwah said.
“Another accused in the case was murdered (during pendency of the trial),” he added.
He said the authenticity of the alleged video of the incident could not be proved in the court and the complainant officer of the municipal corporation, Dhirendra Singh Bayas, and other witnesses did not clearly support the prosecution theory.
Bayas, in his statement during cross-examination, told the court he had sustained an injury on his right leg below the knee during the alleged assault. The civic official contended before the court that he was talking on the mobile phone when he sustained the injury and could not see who caused it as he was engrossed in conversation.
A case was registered against then-BJP MLA Akash Vijayvargiya and 10 others for allegedly beating up municipal building inspector Bayas with a cricket bat on June 26, 2019.
The FIR was registered under IPC sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 294 (abusive language), 323 (assault), 506 (criminal intimidation), 147 (rioting) and 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapon) of the Indian Penal Code.
The then-legislator from Indore was protesting against the demolition of a dilapidated house in the Ganji Compound area of the city when the alleged incident took place.
A Congress government led by Chief Minister Kamal Nath was in office at that time.
A purported video of the incident went viral on social media, leading to the arrest of Aakash Vijayvargiya, who was later granted bail by the court.
Meanwhile, discussions around the incident resurfaced after the court verdict, with videos of the accused MLA hitting the civic officer.
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