Gurugram: Ex-councillor gets 7-year jail for inciting mob in 2 0 1 5

GURUGRAM: A former municipal councillor accused of instigating a mob that attacked a team of police and government officials with petrol bombs and stones in 2015, after an anti-encroachment drive, has been sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment by a local court.
Nisha Singh was among 17 people convicted for the attack at Jhimar Basti in Jharsa (Sector 47) – 10 women, who were handed seven years’ rigorous imprisonment, and eight men, who were given 10-year prison terms.
Other than Singh, all the others who have been convicted are villagers.
From corporate job to politics, now to prison
A former municipal councillor Nisha Singh, who was sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for instigating a mob, was in her thirties when she had given up her corporate job for a foray into politics. She had contested the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) elections in 2011 as an independent and was elected councillor from ward no 30. She subsequently joined the Aam Aadmi Party. Singh served as a councillor till 2016.
After the clash on May 15, 2015, Singh had been arrested with 18 others on charges of rioting and attempt to murder. All of them were out on bail till Thursday, when the court of additional sessions judge Mona Singh convicted them. Two of the accused died during the course of the trial. On Thursday, the former councillor and 16 others were sent to Bhondsi jail. The court, however, dropped the attempt to murder charge against them because of lack of evidence.
Referring to the case diary, public prosecutor Pradeep Kumar said that on May 15, 2015, a team of HSVP (formerly HUDA) workers had reached Jhimar Basti in Jharsa to remove debris lying there from a demolition drive carried out a month earlier. The prosecution’s case was that when the HSVP team reached the spot, it found the encroachers were being instigated by Singh. As soon as the team reached the village – accompanied by policemen – the mob threatened to attack them if they were evicted and hurled stones at the cops and the HSVP team. At one point, they also threw petrol bombs and small LPG cylinders, which led to a fire. The duty magistrate and 15 other policemen suffered injuries. A nearby hutment and an auto-rickshaw were also set ablaze. While fire tenders doused the flames, the police had to fire teargas shells to disperse the mob.
Kumar argued that the team of HSVP workers and the cops had reached the site following a government order and tried to reason with the mob, but to no avail. HSVP had cleared encroachment from 17 acres of land on the directions of the Punjab and Haryana high court to build an approach road for a housing society.
Ashok Verma, the counsel for Singh, contended she was not present at the site when stone-pelting started and had reached 30 minutes later. Verma said Singh was only making video of the tussle between villagers and police and she too had sustained injuries.
After hearing both sides, the additional sessions judge observed that there was unlawful assembly and the attack was carried out with the common intent of inflicting injuries on police and HSVP officials. “The intention of the convicts at the commission of offence was clear from the fact they chose to use explosive and petrol bombs to deter the officials and tried to create obstruction in discharge of their official duties. The convicts are hale and hearty. There is nothing on the basis of which it can be believed that there are some mitigating circumstances on the basis of which the court adopts a lenient view,” the court observed.
Singh and the others were held guilty under sections 148 and 149 (rioting), 186 (obstructing a public servant from discharge of duty), 325 (causing grievous hurt), 352 (assault or criminal force) and 436, among others, of the IPC. Singh was also held guilty under section 114 (abettor present when offence is committed) of the IPC. Seven of the accused, Budhram, Ashok, Sonu, Chand Ram, Tejpal, Sandeep and Anil, were also convicted under the Explosive Substances Act and fined Rs 20,000 each. The others were fined Rs 10,000 each.
After pursuing engineering from Mumbai University, Singh studied MBA (finance) from London Business School. Six months after completing her course, she returned to India and joined Google. She also worked with Siemens for some time before choosing to make a career in politics.
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