Manoj Kumar Paras, a sitting MLA from Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor has been sent to jail by a special court on Saturday. As per reports, Paras was one of the four main accused in a rape case from 2007.

A Dalit woman had lodged a case against Paras and his associates in June 2007, alleging that they had raped her on the pretext of granting her a shop under the government’s quota.

Reports say that Paras and his friends named Jaipal, Assu and Kunwar Saini had been lodged in jail after they had surrendered in court. But Paras had neither applied for bail nor had appeared in court in person.

As per reports, the Allahabad High Court had recently rejected Paras’ plea to close the case filed against him 12 years ago.

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In 2007, after the case was registered, a non-bailable warrant was issued against Paras as per orders by the judicial magistrate of Bijnor. But Paras had managed to obtain a stay order from the High Court.

In 2011, a charge sheet was also submitted by the police but it was dismissed at the local court under the ground that ‘proper procedure was not followed’. Paras had become an MLA in an SP ticket and became a minister in Akhilesh Yadav’s government in 2012. Soon after, a revised charge sheet was submitted.

After the UP government passed an order to transfer all cases against MPs and MLAs to special courts in 2017, Paras’ case was transferred from the local court. The special court will hear his bail plea on June 4.