VARANASI: Bhadohi district fast-track court for cases related to MP-MLAs awarded 15 years imprisonment and fine of Rs 1 lakh to jailed mafia don and four-time former MLA Vijay Mishra in a 2020 gang rape case. Mishra is currently lodged in Agra jail with 83 criminal cases, including of murder, loot, kidnapping, rape, fraud, extortion, property grabbing and others, to his account.Besides the quantum of punishment, the court in its 54-page judgment also said, "Committing a crime like rape by one who had been MLA for 20 years will end the faith of people in public representatives.It is not less than breaching the trust of people that they elect a public representative to send him to the state assembly or Parliament, but he commits such a crime against a woman. Apart from punishing the convicted in this case, giving a message to society is a must."Bhadohis district government counsel (criminal) Dinesh Pandey said, "Fast-track court (MP-MLA) judge Subodh Singh Mishra awarded 15-year imprisonment to Vijay Mishra and also slapped a penalty of Rs 1 lakh in a rape case lodged by a woman singer of Varanasi in 2020. The court awarded him this punishment under IPCs section 376(2)(N) (physical relations on promise to marry). Besides, he has also been awarded two-year imprisonment and fine of Rs 10,000 on charges of criminal intimidation."Both the terms would run concurrently, he said, adding, in case of not paying the penalty amount, the term of imprisonment would increase by three years and three months, respectively. The period Mishra already spent in jail in connection with this case would be adjusted in the term. The court asked to pay half the penalty amount to the rape survivor as compensation against the losses she suffered, he said.The court mentioned that giving a message to society was a must as the 70-year-old convict Vijay Mishra "filled the life of the survivor with difficulties after raping her and then issuing threats to her against taking the legal recourse".Mishra was convicted on Friday, while his son Vishnu Mishra and grandson Vikas alias Jyoti Mishra were acquitted in the same case.Mishra, who was brought from Agra jail amidst tight security arrangements, remained present in the court to hear the judgment. Mishra had won assembly polls from Gyanpur seat four times, between 2002 and 2017, by shifting his loyalty to different political parties. He was defeated when he contested in the 2022 assembly election from jail.A woman singer of a locality under Jaitpura police station in Varanasi had lodged a gang rape case with Gopiganj police station in Bhadohi in October 2020, alleging she had been called to present a musical programme at Mishras residence in 2014 and while she was putting on her clothes before the event, he entered her room and raped her. Later, he asked Vishnu and Vikas to drop her back home, but the duo took her to another building and raped her too, she added.The woman had further alleged that in 2015, she was called by Mishra in Allapur area in Prayagraj and later at a hotel of Varanasi, where he raped her. She added that Mishra had made obscene video clips and used to make video calls to force her for virtual sex. Fed up of harassment, she had started living in Mumbai. She had also attached many clips and screenshots of her mobile phone, along with her complaint.This woman complainant had lodged another case of criminal conspiracy, assault, attempt to murder, threatening and loot with Jaitpura police in Varanasi against Mishra and 13 other persons, including his son Vishnu, grandson Vikas, daughters, nephews and other relatives, in 2021, alleging that they had raided her house and threatened her to withdraw the gang rape case.(The victims identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)

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