Delhi High Court Refuses To Stay Former Congress MLA Rajendra Bharti's Conviction In Gramin Vikas Bank Fraud Case

The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to stay the conviction of former Madhya Pradesh MLA and Congress leader Rajendra Bharti for defrauding the Zila Sahkari Krishi Aur Gramin Vikas Bank

The order leaves his conviction operative and his disqualification from the Madhya Pradesh Assembly undisturbed ahead of the scheduled by-election for the Datia constituency.

A single-judge bench of Justice Manoj Jain dismissed Bharti's application seeking a stay on his conviction pending the disposal of his criminal appeal. Bharti was convicted by a Delhi court and sentenced to three years' imprisonment in April. He was also fined ₹1 lakh for offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, and forgery.

The case concerns allegations that Bharti conspired to cheat the Zila Sahkari Krishi Aur Gramin Vikas Bank by fraudulently extending the tenure of a fixed deposit. The prosecution alleged that forged bank records were used to withdraw excess interest, causing wrongful loss to the bank and unlawful gain to the beneficiaries.

The case dates back to August 24, 1998, when Bharti's mother, Savitri Shyam, deposited ₹10 lakh in a fixed deposit with the cooperative bank for a period of three years. Investigators alleged that the deposit records were later forged to extend the tenure of the deposit, first to 10 years and then to 15 years. According to the prosecution, this enabled continued withdrawal of interest until 2011.

Following investigation and trial, a trial court on April 1, 2026, convicted Bharti and co-accused Raghuvir Sharan Prajapati of criminal conspiracy, cheating, and forgery. The trial court held that they manipulated the bank's records and unlawfully obtained interest payments beyond the original tenure of the fixed deposit.

On April 2, 2026, the trial court sentenced Bharti to three years' imprisonment and imposed a fine of ₹1 lakh. It suspended the sentence for two months to enable him to file an appeal before the High Court.

For Appellant: P. Chidambaram, Sr. Advocate with Abhik Chimni, Pranjal Abrol, Gurupal Singh, Ayan Dasgupta and Moksha Sharma, Advocates.

For Respondent: Rajkumar, APP for the State, Mohit Mathur , Sr. Advocate with Manish Kumar, Amitabh Narendra, Ashish Ranjan, Aparjita Jha, Vignesh, Dama Seshadri Naidu SR. Advocate with, Rohini Prasad, Prateek Kumar, Deepak Sharma, Devansh Rai, Kumar Utsav, Ashish Shukla, Advocates.