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DERA ISMAIL KHAN, April 23: Kishore Kumar, a JUI-F member of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly, was convicted on Monday of contesting the 2008 elections after submitting a fake graduation degree and sentenced to one-year rigorous imprisonment.
District and Sessions Judge Mr Shahjehan Khan also imposed a fine of Rs15,000 on Mr Kumar and suspended his assembly membership.
Soon after the announcement of the verdict, Mr Kumar, who was elected on a seat reserved for minorities, was arrested and taken to the district jail.
The court said that evidence on record proved that the degree submitted by the accused for contesting the election was fake.
Talking to reporters, Mr Kumar denied that his degree was fake and said he would challenge his conviction in the high court. He expressed the hope that he would get justice from the high court.
The court convicted him on three counts — under section 199 (false statement made in declaration), section 200 (using as true such declaration knowing it to be false) and section 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of Pakistan Penal Code. He was sentenced to one-year imprisonment on each count, but the court ordered that sentences would run concurrently.
A member of the Pakistan Minority Coordination Committee was reported to have challenged the graduation degree of Mr Kumar.
