Hearing deferred on MCC violation case against Kumar Vishwas, AAP leaders

Sultanpur (UP), Jun 5 (PTI): A special MP/MLA court in Sultanpur on Friday deferred hearing in a case against former AAP leader Kumar Vishwas, former Delhi minister Satyendar Jain and AAP MLA Somnath Bharti on alleged violation of Model Code of Conduct during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.Advocate Rudra Pratap Singh said the hearing could not take place as the judge was on leave, and June 20 has been fixed as the next date of hearing.The matter was earlier deferred on May 15 due to non-service of summons on the accused.The case dates back to May 6, 2014, when Vishwas was contesting the Amethi Lok Sabha seat on an AAP ticket against Rahul Gandhi.According to the prosecution, police registered a case against Vishwas, Jain, Bharti and others for allegedly violating the Model Code of Conduct and holding public meetings and demonstrations without permission during the election campaign.Bharti's counsel Rudra Pratap Singh said the then station house officer, Mohammad Hamid, had directed Vishwas and his supporters to leave the constituency as they were not registered voters there. Under the Election Commission rules, persons from outside a constituency are not allowed to stay in the area during the 48-hour silence period before polling, he said.Despite repeated directions from the administration, the accused and their supporters allegedly did not leave the area, following which a case was lodged against them, he added.The case, initially being heard by an additional chief judicial magistrate's court, was recently transferred to the court of Special MP/MLA Magistrate Shubham Verma.The court had taken cognisance of the matter and on April 30 ordered issuance of summons to all the accused. However, as the summons were not yet been served, none of the accused appeared before the court on Friday.The court has directed all the accused to appear in person on the next date of hearing. PTI COR CDN RUK RUK(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)