Source : Hindustantimes
Rajya Sabha member Rasheed Masood on Tuesday became the first member of Parliament to be disqualified after conviction in a criminal case.
Masood was sentenced to four years in jail by a special CBI court in Delhi on Tuesday for fraudulently nominating undeserving candidates to MBBS seats in 1990-91. He was held guilty of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery by court on September 19.
Masood is the first MP to be convicted after the Supreme Court on July 10 struck down a law that provided immunity to convicted MPs and MLAs from immediate disqualification.
He was minister of health in the VP Singh government between 1990 and 1991, when he fraudulently nominated candidates to MBBS seats allotted to Tripura in medical colleges across the country from the central pool.
Two of his convicted aides, former IPS officer Gurdial Singh and retired IAS official Amal Kumar Roy, have also been sentenced to one year in jail.
Nine students who had fraudulently got admission in the medical colleges were also convicted of cheating. Two of them, including Masood's nephew, were juvenile at the time of the offence and their case was transferred to the juvenile justice board on January 25, 2007.
Sudhir Ranjan Majumdar and Kashi Ram Reang, who were then Tripura chief minister and health minister, were also accused in the case. Both passed away pending trial.
On July 10, a Supreme Court judgment struck down sub-section 4 of Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, under which incumbent MPs and MLAs can avoid disqualification till pendency of the appeal against conviction in a higher court. The appeal has to be made within three months of the conviction.
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