A special court in Lucknow has sentenced an advocate to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 5.10 lakh after finding him guilty of misusing the identity of a Dalit woman to file dozens of fake cases against his opponents .
Special Judge (SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act) Vivekanand Sharan Tripathi delivered the verdict on Tuesday, holding Parmanand Gupta guilty of conspiracy and abuse of law by filing false cases through one Pooja Rawat, a Dalit woman, to target his rivals.
The 94-page order came after months of inquiry and trial exposing the grave professional misconduct by the lawyer.
Special Public Prosecutor Arvind Mishra said Gupta, in collusion with Rawat, had filed at least 18 cases in his own name and another 11 through Rawat. Many of these were lodged against his rival Arvind Yadav and his family in connection with a property dispute. The false cases included allegations of rape and molestation, he added.
The matter came to light when arguments were raised before the Allahabad High Court, following which reports were sought from police stations concerned. On March 5, 2025, the high court ordered a CBI probe into the matter.
Investigations showed that Gupta conspired to use Rawat's Dalit identity to falsely implicate Yadav and his family. However, during the inquiry it emerged that Rawat was never present at the disputed site at the time of the alleged incidents, and that the house she claimed to have rented was actually under construction by the Yadav family.
Rawat later herself submitted an application to the court on August 4, 2025, stating that she had been trapped by Gupta and his wife Sangeeta, who runs a beauty parlour where she worked as an assistant.
Rawat admitted she had been coerced into giving false statements of sexual assault before a magistrate and pleaded for pardon. The court granted her conditional pardon.
The judge, however, held that Gupta, being fully aware that the charges carried the possibility of life imprisonment, had orchestrated the conspiracy and thus deserved exemplary punishment.
Judge Tripathi said that Gupta had “stained the respected legal profession” and acted as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” exploiting vulnerable individuals for personal gain and misleading the judiciary.
Sentencing him to life imprisonment, the court also directed that a copy of its judgment be sent to the Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh to ensure that "a criminal like advocate Parmanand Gupta does not enter the court premises and practice law, so that the sanctity of the judiciary is preserved."
With inputs from PTI
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