Former MLA Convicted For Threatening To Blow Up Parliament

A Delhi court has convicted former Madhya Pradesh MLA Kishore Samrite for allegedly threatening to blow up Parliament in September 2022 if his demands were not met.

Special judge Vishal Gogne, however, acquitted him of charges for possession of explosives and endangering life or causing injury through it.

The court said upon examination of the substance found in a parcel he reportedly sent to the office of the secretary general of the Rajya Sabha turned out to be "harmless in terms of their capability to cause an explosion".

"While the articles of charge under Section 5(a) of Explosive Substances Act (endangering life through explosive substance), and Section 9B(1)(b) of Explosives Act (manufacturing, importing or exporting any explosive), remained not proved, it is nevertheless established that the accused sent a letter with the threat to blow up the Parliament of India if his demands were not met," the court's February 18 verdict said.

The court convicted him under Section 506 Part II (threat to kill or grievously hurt) of IPC which attracts a maximum punishment of seven years.

The judge would hear arguments on the quantum of punishment on February 27.

Samrite, a former MLA from Lanji in Madhya Pradesh's Balaghat district, threatened to blow up Parliament and sent a letter of threat, containing certain demands, and a suspicious substance to the Rajya Sabha official on September 16, 2022.

The judge said the articles sent to by Samrite contained a letter, a suspicious substance aside from a copy of the Constitution and the Indian flag.

"The letter was explicit in expressing the intention to blow up the Parliament, using dynamite, on a specific date and time, i.e., 11 o'clock on September 30, 2022 if the demands expressed in the letter by the accused were not met," the judge observed. 

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