Bihar News: RJD MLA Anil Kumar Sahni convicted, CBI court convicted

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLA Anil Kumar Sahni has been disqualified from the membership of the Bihar Legislative Assembly. The reason for Sahni's loss of legislature is the recent conviction of him in a cheating case by a CBI court in Delhi. He was on Friday disqualified for the membership of the Bihar Legislative Assembly after being convicted by a CBI court.

According to a notification issued by Bihar Vidhan Sabha Secretary Pawan Kumar Pandey, Sahni has been disqualified "from the date of conviction and commencement of sentence". Sahni, who represented Bihar's Kudhni assembly seat, was convicted on August 29 and sentenced to three years in prison two days later.

The Rouse Avenue Court had convicted Sahni of attempting to obtain traveling allowance by using a fake Air India e-ticket without traveling in 2012. Sahni, who was then a Rajya Sabha member and was in Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's party JDU, had submitted a claim of traveling allowance of Rs 23.71 lakh. Sahni has become the second RJD (Lalu Prasad-led Rashtriya Janata Dal) MLA to be disqualified from the Bihar Assembly within a few months.

Significantly, the party's effective strength in the House has now come down to 78, which is just one more than the BJP. Earlier in July, Mokama MLA Ananth Kumar Singh was disqualified after being convicted by a Patna court in a case related to the recovery of arms and explosives from his residence. Singh's wife Neelam Devi has got party ticket for the Mokama by-election to be held on November 03.