Incarcerated mafioso turned former MLA Vijay Mishra has been sentenced to 15 years in prison by a Fast Track Court (MP/MLA) in Bhadohi on Saturday in a rape case registered against him in 2020.

The court also imposed a fine of ₹1.10 lakh on him and stated that he must serve an additional three years of imprisonment if he fails to pay the fine. The court ruled that both the imprisonment periods will be served concurrently.

This marks the third case in which former MLA Vijay Mishra has been convicted and sentenced in the last 13 months, since October 2022. On Friday, the court convicted him in the case but acquitted his son, Vishnu Mishra, and his grandson, Vikas alias Jyoti Mishra, due to a lack of evidence.

Mishra, 67, had represented the Gyanpur assembly constituency in Bhadohi district.

According to Bhadohi district government counsel (criminal) Dinesh Pandey, Vijay Mishra has been sentenced to 15 years of rigorous imprisonment and fined ₹1 lakh under section 376(2)n for repeatedly raping a female singer. Additionally, he received a two-year sentence under section 506 of the IPC for criminal intimidation and a fine of ₹10,000. The court specified that he would serve an extra three years in prison if he doesn’t pay the imposed penalty.

In 2020, a female singer from Varanasi filed a complaint at Gyanpur police station, Bhadohi, alleging that Mishra sexually assaulted her during a performance at his residence in Bhadohi district in 2014. She also made allegations against Mishra’s son and grandson, leading to the registration of a gangrape case by Gyanpur police. Mishra’s son and grandson were acquitted in the case.

UP police special director general (special DG), Law and Order, Prashant Kumar, said that Mishra has a criminal history spanning over 46 years, with 82 criminal cases filed against him in different districts of UP and one in West Bengal since he was 20 years old in 1977. These cases include nine murder cases, eight attempted murder cases, three gangster acts, four fraud cases, seven arms act cases, nine cases of criminal intimidation, six extortion cases, three Gonda Act cases, and one case each of the National Security Act, prevention of corruption act, and SC/ST act for atrocities against Dalit individuals.

He added that nearly 50 cases are registered at different police stations in Bhadohi, 27 cases in Prayagraj, three in Mirzapur, and one case each in Varanasi, Meerut, and Howrah (West Bengal). Of these, 21 criminal cases are pending in different courts, he has been convicted in three cases, acquitted in 28 cases, and seven cases were withdrawn by the state government in the past.

Earlier on October 17, 2022, the MP/MLA court of Bhadohi awarded him two years of rigorous punishment in an arms act case lodged against him at Gopiganj police station of Bhadohi in 2011. On March 18 of this year, a Prayagraj district and sessions court had sentenced him to five years in prison in another case involving negligent driving, causing injuries, and an arms act violation, registered against him at Phoolpur police station in Prayagraj in 2009.