Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Kanwar Lal Meena, whose conviction and three years’ sentence in a 20-year-old case was upheld by the Rajasthan High Court earlier this month, surrendered in the trial court at Manoharthana in Jhawalar district on Wednesday. No decision has been taken as yet on his disqualification from the Assembly.

The Supreme Court had recently directed Meena to surrender within two weeks, while dismissing his special leave petition (SLP). Elected from Baran district’s Anta, Meena was sentenced to three years’ rigorous imprisonment in December 2020 in a case of brandishing a revolver at an officer with life threats and damaging public property.

Accompanied by his lawyers and supporters, Meena arrived at the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate in Manoharthana on Wednesday morning. The court sent him to judicial custody, after which he was taken to the town’s community health centre for a medical examination. He was later shifted to the Aklera sub-jail.

‘Full faith’

A large number of police personnel and BJP workers were present on the court premises during the surrender. Questioned by journalists about his future move, Meena said he had “full faith” in the judiciary and his lawyers would decide about filing an appeal.

A two-time MLA, Meena first won the election from Manoharthana in 2013, and later from Anta in 2023. He was not elected to the Assembly at the time of the crime in 2005 and already had 15 criminal cases against him. In 2016, he led a mob which allegedly attacked the activists of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, founded by Magsaysay Award winner Aruna Roy, during a march in Jhalawar district.

Though Meena was initially acquitted by the trial court, a sessions court in Aklera later convicted him in December 2020 after finding him guilty of obstructing the government work, intimidating the government officials and vandalising property. His sentence for three and two years, respectively, on different charges, was upheld by the HC on May 1.

Shameful, says Congress

In Jaipur, Congress MLA and Leader of the Opposition Tika Ram Jully described the surrender as a “shameful episode”. “This is a black spot on our democracy. It has happened for the first time in the history of Rajasthan ,” he said.