Lucknow: A district court in Rampur has stayed the conviction of union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi who was sentenced to one year imprisonment for violating prohibitory orders in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections and also granted him interim bail.

The district judge announced relief to the minister after his counsels pleaded that the police action was politically motivated and that no violence took place on the day of the incident.
Naqvi was awarded the sentence after he, along with other BJP activists, were demonstrating against the victimisation of party workers. The police, who registered the case against Mr Naqvi, claimed that he had led a demonstration at the Patwai police station and had violated prohibitory orders.

The court had found Naqvi guilty under Sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 342 (wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal Code, Section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act and Section 144 of the CrPC.