Patna, November 29: A senior parliamentarian from Bihar has lost his membership in the Lok Sabha for keeping the law in the dark about having two wives.
The Patna High Court annulled the election of the Janata Dal-United’s (JD-U) Mangani Lal Mandal after it was established he had suppressed the facts about his first wife in affidavits submitted to the Election Commission of India while filing his nomination papers for the elections.
Mandal was elected a Member of Parliament from Jhanjharpur Lok Sabha constituency in Bihar on a JD-U ticket in the last Lok Sabha polls in April 2009.
Justice V.N. Sinha declared as “void” the election of the parliamentarian after hearing a petition by social activist Bishnudeo Bhandari who alleged that Mandal had broken the law by hiding information about his first wife and assets.
“The judgment is indeed shocking but I will move the Supreme Court against the local court’s ruling,” Mandal told the media, reacting to the court’s judgment.
The court said its verdict was based on the thorough examination of all records and witnesses in more than 80 hearings.
Initially, Mandal said he had only one wife, Arti Mandal, and that Sunita Devi was not his wife. Later, however, he admitted both of them were his wives, which the court took seriously. During the trial, the MP also admitted he has five children from his first wife. He was also found guilty of concealing information about his assets/liabilities.
This is the second big setback for Mandal in the past few months. Earlier, he was suspended by the party leadership, along with three other party MPs, after being found guilty of indulging in anti-party activities in last year’s assembly elections.
A three-member party disciplinary panel had found Mandal guilty.
-Agencies