Member of Parliament from Lakshadweep, Mohammad Faizal, has been disqualified from Lok Sabha after he was sentenced to ten years of jail by a district court in an attempt to murder case.
Lok Sabha’s Ethics Committee late on Friday decided to strip the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader, Faizal, of his membership to the lower house.
“Consequent upon his conviction by the Court of Sessions, Kavaratti, Lakshadweep Mohammed Faizal, Member of Lok Sabha representing the Lakshadweep Parliamentary Constituency of the Union Territory of Lakshadweep stands disqualified from the membership of Lok Sabha from the date of his conviction ie January 11, 2023, in terms of the provisions of Article 102(1)(e) of the Constitution of India read with Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951,” read a Lok Sabha bulletin.
The Ethics Committee took the decision after receiving communication on January 11 from District and Sessions Judge, Kavaratti, informing that MP Faizal was tried at the Court of Sessions on charges of sections 143, 147, 148, 448, 427, 324, 342, 307, 506 read with Section 149 of IPC.
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The trial went on for about five years and held him guilty on January 11 on charges of attacking his relative Mohammad Salih. The NCP MP, who was elected to parliament in the last 2014 polls, was sentenced to imprisonment for 10 years and a fine of ₹1 lakh (major punishment). The MP is behind the bars in Kerala’s Kannur district.
Faizal led a group of people to attack Salih following an argument about constructing a shed. He was grievously injured in the fight and had to remain in a Kerala hospital for months.
According to a 2021 report by the poll rights group Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a total of 363 MPs and MLAs were facing criminal charges.