Ex-MLA Gets 6 Months In Jail For Threatening To Blow Up Parliament

A Delhi court on Friday sentenced former Madhya Pradesh MLA Kishore Samrite to six months in jail for threatening to blow up Parliament in September 2022 over his 'unfulfilled demands'.

Special Judge Vikas Dhull noted that the threatening letter and the suspicious substance were sent to Parliament, "which is the temple of Indian democracy".

"It is a forum where issues of all hues and pertaining to national interest are expected to be discussed with decorum and in deference to public aspirations. For the highest contemplative body of the country to be subjected to a threat of being blown up with dynamite and the threatening letter to actually be accompanied by a suspicious substance is indeed a grave circumstance which requires an appropriate sentence," he said.

It is equally pertinent that the convict is not just an ordinary citizen, but a former MLA from Lanji in Madhya Pradesh's Balaghat district, the judge said.

"Being most acquainted and sensitised to the security of Parliamentary establishments and more so to the sanctity of such representative institutions, his dispatch of such a threatening letter to the Parliament acted to normalise the threat of violence towards the elected Houses of the Parliament.

"If such conduct is not deterred, it raises the prospect of others emulating the course taken by Samrite for voicing his dissent towards government policies. Perhaps, every such threat would not be accompanied by harmless substances," the judge said.

The judge also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on Samrite.

A parcel containing some suspicious substance related to explosives, besides an Indian flag, and a copy of the Constitution was received through speed post at the Parliament House on September 16, 2022.

The judge said that the letter from Samrite, a former MLA from Lanji in Balaghat, threatening to blow up the Parliament building, constituted a threat to cause destruction of property by fire, thereby rendering him liable for conviction under Part II of section 506 of IPC.

The judge, however, acquitted Samrite of the charge under Explosives Act, after noting that the substance in question did not constitute an "explosive" under the Act.

Samrite was represented by advocate Manish Kumar Choudhary.

The court had, in December 2022, granted bail to the accused noting that the threat to blow off Parliament did not result in any kind of explosion or loss to life or property.

The parcel also had a 10-page signed complaint of Samrite, from which it was made out that he was showing dissatisfaction with the policies of the ruling government and made 70 different demands with a threat to blow off Parliament House on September 30, 2022, if his demands were not fulfilled.

During the investigation, it also came to light that the accused has sent a similar parcel to the Supreme Court on September 19, 2022 and a separate FIR was lodged in that regard. 

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