Ex-MP Dhananjay Singh released after bail grant

Bareilly (UP): Former MP Dhananjay Singh was on Wednesday released from Bareilly jail after he was granted bail by the Allahabad High Court last week.

The MP-MLA court in Jaunpur on March 6, sentenced Singh and his associate Santosh Vikram to seven years of rigorous imprisonment in a 2020 kidnapping and extortion case.

The former MP was lodged in Jaunpur district jail and was later shifted to Bareilly jail.

Allahabad High Court granted bail to Singh on Saturday but refused his plea to suspend or stay a seven-year jail sentence passed by the district court.

Singh and his associate Santosh Vikram were found guilty by the district court for their involvement in the kidnapping and extortion of Namami Gange project manager Abhinav Singhal.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Singh said that a fake case was lodged against him in 2020 for exposing corruption in the Namami Gange project in Jaunpur district.

Singh has been released on bail but he cannot contest elections due to the conviction in the district court.

Singh's wife Srikala Reddy is contesting from Jaunpur parliamentary constituency as a candidate of the Bahujan Samaj Party.

In Jaunpur, the BJP has fielded former Maharashtra minister Kripa Shankar Singh, while the SP has fielded Babu Singh Kushwaha, a former BSP minister accused in the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam.

Dhananjay Singh, who was the BSP MP from Jaunpur between 2009-2014, said that after being released from the jail he will visit Jaunpur. He extended best wishes to his wife for the Lok Sabha elections.

Elections in Jaunpur will be held on May 25 in the sixth phase of Lok Sabha polls.