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Thursday, September 15, 2011

Bhandari completes prison term; High Command asked to view conviction positively

GANGTOK, 11 Sept: Sikkim Pradesh Congress president Nar Bahadur Bhandari was today officially declared a free man with the completion of his one-month prison term and the two Sikkim Police personnel “guarding” him for the past almost one month were recalled this morning. They left his bedside at the Vedanta Hospital in Gurgaon this morning itself. Confirming this, KN Lepcha, the SPCC acting president, stated that Mr. Bhandari was a free man as of today. He also shared that the SPCC was feeling upbeat and optimistic about the return of their president.
Mr. Bhandari had been convicted on a corruption charge by the Special Court [Prevention of Corruption Act], Gangtok, and sentenced to 6 months imprisonment; this was commuted to a one month sentence by the High Court of Sikkim in August. Mr. Bhandari decided to serve his time instead of challenging his conviction. He developed health complications the day he began his prison term and has been under treatment at STNM Hospital here and Vedanta Hospital since.
While the state Congress is upbeat about the release of their party leader, there has been no official communication on Mr. Bhandari’s conviction from the Congress high command.
It was learnt that Mr. Lepcha and other state Congress leaders had met with the Congress general secretary and the Sikkim in-charge Mr. Faleiro in New Delhi some days ago. During the meeting, the state Congress leaders had apprised him of the fact that despite several corruption cases filed against him, Mr. Bhandari had been handed a clean chit in all except one case. In this regard, the state Congress delegation had reportedly informed Mr. Faleiro that the case in which Mr. Bhandari was convicted involved a very small amount and the Court too had sentenced the state leader for just one month. Mr. Faleiro was asked to convey this to the Congress high command with the request to ask the high command to consider the State-unit’s sentiments on the issue.
While Mr. Bhandari is out of custody, he remains at the hospital due to pain in his spinal cord, sources inform. It is reported that he may remain in hospital for another fortnight. SPCC leaders will be going down to Siliguri to receive him once he returns, it is informed.
Meanwhile, the state Congress has started its people-contact exercise and district level meetings are underway at the South and West districts. In a couple of weeks, the party plans to start its district level meetings in the East and North Districts as well. Mr. Lepcha informs that the party is taking up such issues to the people as the Public Order Bill, corruption, the pink card and residential certificate exercise of the government as well as, what it considers, anti-people legislations of the government.

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