UP: Court Allows Filing Sedition Charges Against 36 Accused in Bulandshahr Violence

Lucknow: An incident on December 3, 2018, made national headlines, in which 54-year-old police inspector Subodh Kumar Singh was allegedly lynched by a mob led by a Hindu Right-wing group who had gone on a rampage after a cow carcass was found in a sugarcane field near Mahav village in Siyana, Bulandshahr district. 

Three years later, the court of the Additional District and Sessions Judge has allowed the police to book all 36 accused under Section 124A (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in the incident, including the key accused, Yogesh Raj, a Bajrang Dal member who allegedly incited the mob for violence.

Additional sessions judge (ADJ) Vineeta Vimal, in her order, said, "It has been confirmed from the police investigation that the accused were part of an unruly mob with weapons. They arrived at the spot with an aim to disturb the peace. The court allows Section 124-A (sedition) in the charge sheet, and trial will take place accordingly."

The orders were shared with all the accused who pleaded 'not guilty'. 

Son of slain police inspector has expressed satisfaction over the district court's judgement to book all the accused under section 124A (sedition) of the IPC, saying it was a long battle he fought alone. 

Speaking with NewsClick, Shrey Singh said, "The development took place after the Supreme Court intervened. We want the case to take the fast track route once the court starts proceeding, as almost all accused were on bail. It took almost three years of struggle, and we want to see the accused behind the bar, which is the place for them."

The apex court had said it "cannot let lynching over cow slaughter go on." 

Rajni, the wife of Subodh Singh, said that though it took more than two and a half years to uphold the sedition charges against the accused, it was a happy moment for the family. "We will fight the case till all the accused roaming on bail not go back to jail and punished as per law," she said. 

THE INCIDENT

On December 3, 2018, mobs led by members of Hindutva groups, especially the Bajrang Dal, clashed with police officials and set fire to a police post in Chingrawathi village of Bulandshahr. The violence involved rioting, burning of vehicles and later gunfire that killed police inspector Subodh Kumar Singh and an agitator Sumit Kumar. The violence started after the residents of a neighbouring village, Mahav, claimed that they had found the carcasses of three cows in a sugarcane field.

The mob brought the carcasses in a tractor-trolley to the Bulandshahr-Garhmukteshwar state highway and blocked the road. There, they got into a heated argument with the police, who tried to remove the trolley as a Muslim procession was to pass down the road later that day.

The police later registered two cases in connection with the incident – one related to the alleged cow slaughter and another related to the violence and deaths. Yogesh Raj, a Bajrang Dal leader, who is the complainant in the first case, is an accused in the second.

Forty-four people were named in three separate charge sheets. Two of the accused died in the past three years, while one is a minor whose case is under trial in a juvenile court.

The Bulandshahr police had initially lodged a First Information Report (FIR) for murder, violence, and sedition against the accused.

They had then booked 27 people, including Yogesh Raj, and about 60 unidentified people. The second report was filed against those involved in cow slaughter. Yogesh Raj was granted bail by the Allahabad High Court in September 2019, which was opposed in the Supreme Court by Rajni. 

He had won the district panchayat member election from Ward No. 5 in May 2020. He surrendered to the court of Additional District Judge after his bail was rejected in the Supreme Court in January this year.

Later, in March 2020, the court dropped sedition charges from the charge sheet as the police did not have the requisite permission from the state to press the same.

In June 2019, the Uttar Pradesh government sanctioned the sedition case. It took over two-and-a-half years for the court to press sedition charges.

"Among the 41 accused, only six are currently in jail while 38 are out on bail," said Yashpal Singh Raghav, special government council.