BJP MLA from Ayodhya’s Gosaiganj constituency Indra Pratap alias Khabbu Tiwari, has been disqualified from the membership of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly following his conviction in a 28-year-old case, Vidhan Sabha secretariat said.

Tiwari was sentenced to five years in jail by a Special Court for using a fake mark sheet to get admission in a college. According to a notification issued by Pradeep Kumar Dubey, Vidhan Sabha Principal Secretary, Gosaiganj seat will be considered vacated from October 18, 2021.

Special Judge Puja Singh of MP/MLA court Ayodhya had delivered the verdict on October 18 after which Tiwari was taken in custody and sent to jail. The court had also slapped a fine of Rs 8,000 on him.

The case was lodged in the year 1992 by the then principal of Saket Degree College in Ayodhya, Yaduvansh Ram Tripathi, at the Ram Janmabhoomi police station accusing Tiwari of using fake marksheet to get admission. Tiwari was also elected secretary of the college students’ union in that year.

Principal Tripathi, now deceased had lodged an FIR on February 18, 1992, alleging that Khabbu Tiwari had failed in second year of graduation but took admission in next class by submitting a fake marksheet.

The chargesheet in the case registered in 1992 was filed in the court after 13 years even as several original documents disappeared from records in the trial and copies were prepared for the trial to proceed in court. Principal Tripathi also died during the protracted trial.

Mahendra Kumar Agrawal, then dean of Saket College and Ram Bahadur Singh, section officer of the college, were among the witnesses who testified against Tiwari in court.

Tiwari, against whom many other criminal cases are also pending in trial court, was elected MLA from Faizabad’s Gosaiganj assembly constituency in the 2017 elections. Tiwari was present in the court when the verdict was delivered. He was taken into custody and sent to jail.