The brothers were booked under the UP Gangsters Act in connection with the murder of the then BJP MLA from Ghazipur, Krishnanad Rai, on November 29, 2005 and the kidnapping-murder of Varanasi-based trader Nand Kishore Rungta in 1997.
The NCP leader, elected from Lakshadweep, was disqualified after his conviction and sentencing in an attempt to murder case. Despite the Kerala high court suspending the conviction and sentence, the Lok Sabha secretariat did not withdraw the disqualification order.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi s disqualification as a Lok Sabha member was against the basic tenets of the Constitution and was a condemnable move that highlighted the curtailment of democratic values, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar has said.