Vikram Saini was sentenced to two-year imprisonment by an MP/MLA court on October 11 for his alleged role in 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.

LUCKNOW — The Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha secretariat, late on Monday night, issued a notification declaring Khatauli assembly seat as vacant.

Khatauli MLA Vikram Saini was sentenced to two-year imprisonment by an MP/MLA court on October 11 for his alleged role in 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.

The notification stated that Khatauli assembly seat would be considered vacant with effect from October 11, the day MP/MLA court, Muzaffarnagar, awarded two-year imprisonment to Saini in the case.

Earlier on October 29, the assembly secretariat had declared Rampur seat as vacant, just two days after its MLA and veteran SP leader Azam Khan was awarded a three-year sentence in a hate speech case.

Immediately after this, RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary wrote a letter to Vidhan Sabha speaker Satish Mahana, asking why Saini had not been disqualified after being awarded jail sentence while Rampur MLA Azam Khan was disqualified immediately after the court sentenced him.

Vidhan Sabha sources claimed that while disqualifying an MLA did not come under the Speaker’s purview, Khatauli’s case had been referred to the law department to check whether the Supreme Court’s order of 2013 was applicable on Saini’s two-year imprisonment. — IANS