Influential personalities in India who have faced harsh penalties

Real-life crimes committed by the influential are often portrayed in films and TV shows and the public interest in such sensational cases are spectacular. But when the criminal offence takes place in every industry’s backyard, they tend to takes years to be solved and in that process we often get a glimpse of the use of influence and money so that the odds are in favor of the criminals hidden among the influential people of our country.

India has witnessed some of the worst crimes compared to the rest of the world. Some of these crimes have made headlines as a result of the major role played by the rich and influential citizens of the country. Some of them have escaped reality, but most of them have been put behind bars, at least, for a certain period.This article intends to accentuate some of the harshest penalties faced by influential individuals of India.

Kuldeep Singh Sengar

Ex-BJP MLA, Sengar was sent to jail for the rest of his natural biological life for raping and kidnapping a woman in Unnao in 2017. He was convicted under the Indian Penal Code and the POSCO Act for the offence by a public servant committing penetrative sexual assault against a child and also framing false charges against the rape survivor’s father and his death in judicial custody. The court also imposed an exemplary fine of Rs 25 lakhs on him to be paid to the victim.

Mohammed Nisham

A multimillionaire business tycoon based in Kerala, India. Apart from being a prominent tobacco supplier, he is said to own a hotel and jewellery businesses in the Middle East. He is a notorious businessman turned-out criminal who was charged under many criminal cases in Kerala and Karnataka.Nisham is known to have been named in 16 criminal cases and he was sentenced to life term imprisonment and an additional 24 years of imprisonment for allegedly murdering his security guard in the year 2015.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh

Head of the cult Dera Sacha Sauda, Gurmeet Ram Rahim has been named one of the most powerful Indians in 2015. He was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment for raping two minors in 2017 and was convicted of the murder of a journalist and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Pramod Gupta

Former BJP leader and Cooperative Bank Chairman, Gupta was found to be guiltyin the rape case of a girl after offering her a drink laced with sedatives. He was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Hon’ble court.

Pappu Yadav

Rajesh Ranjan, known as Pappu Yadav is an influential politician in the country. He had been found guilty in the 1998 murder of a rival politician, CPM legislator Ajit Sarkar and was sent to imprisonment for 12 years.

A.Raja

Is politician from the DravidaMunnetraKazhagam (DMK) political party. He was found guilty in the 2-G spectrum case and had spent 15 months in jail during the trial which was the longest for any of the accused in the case.

Suresh Kalmadi

A politician and a former Chairman of the CWG Organizing Committee. He was charged with conspiracy, forgery, misconduct and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act for being involved in the Common Wealth Games scam and was sent to jail for 10 months and the court also directed him to pay a surety amount of Rs. 500,000.

Kobad Ghandy

KobalGhandy is communist and Maoist ideologue assigned to spread the task of spreading Maoist influence in the urban areas and running its propaganda wing. He was guilty of various crimes like possessing fake voter identity and PAN cards and was awarded 7 years imprisonment.

Peter Mukerjea

Peter Mukerjea is a retired British television executive. From 1997 to 2007 he was the CEO of Star India and in 2007 he joined INX Media as chief strategy officer. In 2012, Peter Mukerjea faced prison for 4 years having played a role in the 2012 Sheena Bora Murder Case.

Monica Bedi

Known more as a girlfriend of the underworld don Abu Salem rather than a Bollywood actor, Monica Bedi was arrested and sentenced to a five years jail term in 2005 in a passport forgery case.

Shiney Ahuja

He was accused of raping his 20 year old maid in 2009 and served about three years of imprisonment before he was granted bail.

Salman Khan

Bollywood star Salman Khan had been sentenced to jail for five years for poaching two blackbucks before being granted bail.

P.Chidambaram

Palaniappan Chidambaram is an Indian politician and former attorney who currently serves as Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha and formely served as the Union Minister of Finance and Union Minister of Home Affairs of India.

He was said to be involved in the INX Media Case which was a high-profile money laundering investigation in India. He was arrested by the CBI and was given a bail after 105 days of custody in Tihar Jail.

Conclusion

When White Collar Crimes were most prevalent amongthe rich and the influential, today, we witness more crimes that the well-off have been associated with. Politicians, Bollywood actors and the industrialists are meant to lead the society and to remain role models considering the respect they receive in return of holding a certain position but their act every so often is contradictory. Many of the cases we have seen above are a miniscule fragment of the harsh reality and yet there are plenty more to be brought before the public eye to grant justice to those who are tolerating injustice.