Former Rajasthan MLA Girraj Singh Malinga surrenders after Supreme Court order

Former MLA Girraj Singh Malinga surrendered in a special court for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Dholpur on Wednesday (November 20, 2024) in a case of alleged assault of a Dalit engineer of Energy Department in 2022, following an order of the Supreme Court. He was earlier released on bail by the Rajasthan High Court.

Mr. Malinga was booked in a case of alleged assault of two engineers, one of whom was a Dalit, after they went to a Rajput-dominated village in his constituency to enquire about non-payment of electricity bills by a large number of people. The then sitting Congress MLA allegedly stormed into their office with his associates on March 28, 2022, and assaulted them with casteist slurs.

The three-time MLA was denied a ticket by the Congress from Dholpur district’s Bari constituency for the 2023 State Assembly election. He left the Congress and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, which fielded him from the same seat, but he lost to Jaswant Singh Gurjar of the Bahujan Samaj Party.

The victim of assault, Harshadhipati Valmiki, sustained multiple fracture injuries, including a broken femur, and underwent treatment for more than a year at Sawai Man Singh Government Hospital in Jaipur.

The case was registered under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, after which the police arrested several of the accused persons. Mr. Malinga surrendered on May 11, 2022, and was sent by a court in Dholpur to judicial custody. After he tested positive for COVID-19 and was admitted to a hospital, the High Court granted him bail the same month.

On Mr. Valmiki’s plea pointing out that Mr. Malinga took out a road show and organised public celebrations after being released, the High Court cancelled his bail in July 2024 and directed him to surrender within 30 days. Mr. Malinga filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court, which temporarily stayed the High Court’s order.

In a detailed review on November 8, the Supreme Court directed Mr. Malinga to surrender within two weeks and lifted the stay on the High Court’s cancellation order. The former MLA’s petition is pending in the apex court, which will conduct a follow-up hearing four weeks after his surrender to further assess compliance.

After Mr. Malinga’s surrender on Wednesday, the SC/ST court in Dholpur sent him to judicial custody till December 2.

Dalit groups in the State had carried out a sustained campaign against Mr. Malinga during the months following the 2022 assault, urging the Congress not to give him a ticket. Dalit activists also opposed the BJP’s move to induct him into the party and field him from Bari, claiming that its slogans against Dalit atrocities were an election gimmick.