Datia Seat Crisis: Former MLA Rajendra Bharti Appeals 3-Year Jail Term in Delhi High Court, Battles Upcoming Mid-Term Polls:
The legal and political future of Datia, Madhya Pradesh, hangs in a delicate balance. The Delhi High Court on Wednesday, July 8, 2026, commenced high-profile arguments on an appeal filed by senior Congress leader and former MLA Rajendra Bharti.
Bharti is aggressively challenging his recent conviction and three-year prison sentence in the long-standing Gramin Vikas Bank cheating case. Alongside his primary appeal, the disqualified lawmaker is desperately seeking judicial intervention to stop the Election Commission of India (ECI) from notifying a mid-term poll schedule for his vacated assembly seat.
Chidambaram Leads the Defence: ‘Trust, Not Bharti, Was the Beneficiary’
Appearing before Justice Manoj Jain, a high-powered legal defence team led by Senior Advocate P Chidambaram and Advocate Abhik Chimni presented comprehensive arguments on Bharti’s behalf.
Chidambaram argued that the lower court’s judgment was structurally flawed, pointing out that Rajendra Bharti was never a personal beneficiary of the alleged financial transactions. Instead, the funds in question belonged entirely to a charitable organisation—the Shri Shyam Sunder Shyam Jan Sahyog Evam Samajik Vikas Sansthan trust.
The defence also reminded the High Court that the entire trial had been safely transferred from Madhya Pradesh to a Special Court in New Delhi following a specific petition moved by Bharti himself, who feared political vendetta and lacked confidence in securing an unbiased trial in his home state. While the High Court has already suspended Bharti’s three-year sentence pending the outcome of the appeal, his political career remains completely frozen due to his immediate disqualification from the Vidhan Sabha.
Chronology of a Post-Maturity Fixed Deposit Conspiracy
The baseline of the criminal complaint dates back to July 29, 2015, when Narender Parmar, the Manager of the Zila Sahkari Krishi Aur Gramin Vikas Bank, filed a formal complaint under Section 200 of the CrPC against Bharti and his mother, Savitri Shyam (who passed away during the trial).
The underlying financial fraud unravels across a specific timeline:
The Original Investment (August 1998): Savitri Shyam deposited a lump sum of ₹10 lakh into the bank under a fixed deposit (FD) scheme tailored for a strict three-year tenure at a high interest rate of 13.5% per annum on behalf of her family trust.
The Unauthorised Withdrawals (1999–2011): Rather than allowing the asset to mature or renegotiating standard market rates after three years, she began withdrawing annual interest payments of ₹1.35 lakh. This premium withdrawal cycle continued for 13 years, which violates banking policies.
Administrative Coercion & Forgery: The prosecution proved that Bharti used his influential political position as the Chairman of the bank’s Board of Directors to actively pressure ground-level employees into clearing these illegal payments. To sustain the fraud, official ledgers, counterfoils, and physical receipts were intentionally tampered with, forging the original “three-year” duration text into “ten” or “fifteen” years.
Rouse Avenue Special Court Decides Automatic Disqualification
On April 2, 2026, Special Judge (MP-MLA) Dig Vinay Singh at the Rouse Avenue Court held Bharti guilty of criminal conspiracy under Section 120B read with Sections 420, 467, 468, and 471 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The court sentenced him to three years of rigorous imprisonment alongside a ₹1 lakh fine, noting that his influential actions directly forced the rural co-operative bank into total liquidation.
A co-accused bank employee, Raghubir Sharan Prajapati, was also handed a matching three-year sentence and a ₹2.5 lakh fine for executing the physical forgery.
Following the strict implementation of Section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, the Madhya Pradesh Assembly Secretariat automatically cancelled Bharti’s legislative membership, declaring his hard-won Datia seat vacant. Bharti, who became a giant-killer in the 2023 state polls by defeating BJP heavyweight Narottam Mishra, faces permanent political exile unless the Delhi High Court issues an absolute stay on his conviction order. The high-stakes legal arguments are scheduled to continue through Thursday afternoon.
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