Former MP and actor Jaya Prada has been declared an 'absconder' by a Rampur court in Uttar Pradesh, in connection with two election code violation cases. The court has directed the police to arrest her and present her before it on March 6, news agency PTI reported.
These cases were registered against Jaya Prada at the Kemari and Swar police stations for allegedly violating the Model Code of Conduct during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
She contested as a BJP candidate from Rampur in 2019 but was defeated by Azam Khan of the Samajwadi Party. Jaya Prada had previously been elected to the Lok Sabha from Rampur in 2004 and 2009 on a Samajwadi Party ticket, but was later expelled from the party.
Despite several summons issued by the special MP-MLA court, Jaya Prada failed to appear before it. Furthermore, seven non-bailable warrants issued against her also failed to bring her to court.
The police reported that Jaya Prada has been evading arrest and all her known mobile numbers are switched off. In light of this, Judge Shobhit Bansal declared her an absconder.
The Superintendent of Police of Rampur has been ordered to form a team to arrest her and bring her to court for the hearing on March 6.
Despite this, Jaya Prada is one of the most popular and influential actors in the Hindi and Telugu film industries. She has featured in over 60 films in Telugu, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali and Marathi.
Later, she left the film industry and joined the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) at the invitation of its founder NT Rama Rao in 1994, marking her entry into politics. She became a Rajya Sabha MP and then a Lok Sabha MP. Following differences with party supremo N Chandrababu Naidu, Jaya Prada joined the Samajwadi Party.
She later joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in March 2019 ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
(With agency inputs)