Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government has reportedly begun the process of withdrawing over 131 cases in connection to the Muzaffarnagar and Shamli riots that took place in the year 2013. The Bharatiya Janata Party-led UP government has sought a legal opinion with the State Law department regarding the same.
The riots that happened during the previous regime of Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) government saw over 60 deaths in its aftermath. The communal clashes injured hundreds of people and over 40,000 people were rendered homeless.
There were more than 500 cases registered against the miscreants and over a thousand people were accused in the same. The people accused in the riots were charged under Sections 302 and 307 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC); while many others were charged under Section 295A too.
The decision to withdraw the cases came after a high-level delegation led by BJP MP Sanjeev Baliyan had met CM Yogi Adityanath on February 5. The meeting saw Baliyan request the UP CM to withdraw over 175 cases lodged by the previous SP government out of vendetta.
During the meeting, it was also mentioned that there were reports of following cases causing discontent among the party workers. Notable names facing charges in the riots cases were Sanjeev Baliyan himself, Umesh Malik (BJP MLA ā Budhana), Suresh Rana (State Sugarcane Minister), and Sangeet Som (BJP MLA ā Sardhana) amongst others.
The State government has reportedly received opinions from DMs and SSPs from the two districts and is now exploring the legal aspects before taking the final decision. The BJP-led UP government had sought to withdraw over 20,000 cases against politicians across political parties, last year in December too.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 22, 2018 04:37 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).