Gwalior, March 9 -- The Gwalior Bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court declared the bye-election of Congress legislator Mukesh Malhotra from the Vijaypur Assembly Constituency as "null and void" on Monday, noting that the candidate deliberately suppressed information about pending criminal cases in his election affidavit.

A single bench of Justice G S Ahluwalia further declared the runner-up BJP candidate, Ramniwas Rawat, as the "elected MLA" from the seat.

"...it is clear from the evidence of the representatives of newspapers, the information regarding criminal antecedents was not published in newspapers having wide circulation in the Vijaypur Assembly Constituency. Under these circumstances, it is held that Mukesh Malhotra, by deliberatel...