Rampur:
A court in Uttar Pradesh's Rampur on Tuesday declared former MP and actor Jaya Prada an 'absconder' in connection with two cases of election code violation and directed police to arrest her and produce her on March 6.
According to senior prosecutor Amarnath Tiwari, two cases have been registered at Kemari and Swar police stations against the former MP from Rampur for allegedly violating the Model Code of Conduct during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The actor was the BJP candidate from Rampur in the 2019 polls and was defeated by Samajwadi Party's Azam Khan. She was elected to the Lok Sabha from Rampur in 2004 and 2009 on a Samajwadi Party ticket. The Samajwadi Party had expelled her.
In these cases, the special MP-MLA court had issued summons several times, but the former MP did not appear before this court.
Warrants were subsequently issued for her arrest seven times, but police were unable to bring her to court.
He said the police in its response filed in court said Jaya Prada was evading arrest and all her known mobile numbers had been switched off.
Mr Tiwari said Justice Shobhit Bansal took a tough stand on the matter and declared Jaya Prada an absconder.
The Rampur Superintendent of Police was ordered to form a team led by a circle officer and arrest Jaya Prada and produce her before the court at the next hearing on March 6.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)