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The Allahabad High Court recently rejected bail plea of Bahujan Samajwadi Party leader Atul Rai in connection with an abetment of suicide case. Court denied relief to Rai noting that being a gangster, hardened criminal and ‘Bahubali', he could tamper with the evidence and influence the witnesses using his muscle and money power.

Rai is a sitting Member of Parliament from Ghosi Lok Sabha Constituency of Uttar Pradesh. To his credit, Rai so far has 23 criminal cases including cases of kidnapping, murder, rape and other heinous offences.

Rai was already named in a rape case and the instant case was registered against him under Sections 120B, 167, 195A, 218, 306, 504, and 506 IPC pursuant to the death of the victim girl and his friend owing to their suicide attempt within the Supreme Court premises in August 2021.

Court highlighted an application given by the victim to the Senior Superintendent of Police, Varanasi alleging that Rai was abating and drawing her close to committing suicide and that she was being continuously harassed physically and mentally and subjected to cruelty to change her stand before the Court.

Therefore, taking note of the heinousness of offence alleged against Rai, his might being an MP, evidence available on record and impact on society, the bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh rejected his bail plea. 

Apart from that, Court took a serious view of the alarming number of criminals reaching Parliament. Court said that it was result of the nexus between criminal politicians and bureaucrats and the unmindfulness of the political establishment that a Bahubali like Rai reached Parliament.

"Alarming number of criminals reaching Parliament and State Assembly is a wake up call for all. Parliament and Election Commission of India are required to take effective measures to wean away criminals from politics and break unholy nexus between criminal politicians and bureaucrats," the bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh said.

Taking a dig at the root cause of the issue, Court stated that "there is responsibility of civil society as well to rise above the parochial and narrow considerations of caste, community etc and to ensure that a candidate with criminal background does not get elected."

Court further emphasized that earlier ‘Bahubalis’ and other criminals used to provide support to candidates on various considerations including caste, religion and political shelter but now criminals themselves are entering into politics and getting elected. "The political parties do not have any inhibition in giving tickets to candidates with criminal background including those having heinous offence(s) registered against them," Court said.

Therefore, Court said that "it is the responsibility of the Parliament to show its collective will to restrain the criminals from entering into the politics, Parliament or legislature to save democracy and the country governed on democratic principles and rule of law."

Case Title: Atul Kumar Singh Alias Atul Rai S/O Shri Bharat Singh v. State Of U.P.