Bhopal court convicts former Congress MLA for morphing pictures of RSS chief; releases her on bail

A Bhopal court on Tuesday awarded two years' rigorous imprisonment to former Congress MLA Kalpana Parulekar in a case of morphing a photograph of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.

The court also granted her bail after pronouncing the sentence.

Additional District Judge (ADJ) Arvind Kumar Goyal sentenced Parulekar to rigorous imprisonment for two years and slapped a fine of Rs 12,000 on her for using a morphed picture of Bhagwat to show former state lokayukta PP Naolekar as an RSS worker.

She was convicted under the provisions of the Information Technology Act and different sections of the Indian Penal Code.

According to prosecution, Parulekar had on November 29, 2011, while addressing a media conference inside the Madhya Pradesh assembly premises, criticised Naolekar, the then state Lokayukta, and accused him of links with RSS.

To establish her allegation, she produced a photograph purportedly showing Naolekar in RSS uniform.

The prosecution alleged that the photograph had been created after doctoring Bhagwat's picture clicked on November 18, 2010 in Jharkhand.

After this, a man named Gopal Krishna Dandotiya had lodged a complaint with the Madhya Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) against Parulekar which was later transferred to the CID.
Soon after her conviction, her lawyer moved an application for bail which was granted.