Yogi to Let Off BJP Muzaffarnagar Riots Accused

Almost a month after Yogi Adityanath government ordered to withdraw the cases of rioting and hate speech against himself, he has now decided to help out fellow leaders in his party who are accused in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots in which more than 62 people were killed and fifty thousand displaced.

In a move to initiate the process of withdrawing the cases against BJP leaders, the State government asked the District Magistrate and the Senior Superintendent of Police of Muzaffarnagar about their opinion on the possibility of withdrawing the riot related cases against BJP leaders in “public interest”.

The prominent BJP leaders who were booked on charges of provoking the riots include former Union Minister and party MP from Muzaffarnagar Sanjiv Balyan, Bijnor MP Bhartendu Singh, UP cane development minister and MLA from Thana Bhawan Suresh Rana, Budhana MLA Umesh Malik and party leader Sadhvi Prachi.

According to senior officials in Muzaffarnagar administration, Raj Singh, Special Secretary in the Uttar Pradesh department of justice wrote a letter on January 5 to the District Magistrate and the Senior Superintendent of Police of Muzaffarnagar, asking if the riot related cases could be withdrawn in “public interest”.

The letter sought information from the two senior officials on 13 points. Interestingly, rather than mention the name of the leaders in the letter, file numbers related to the riot cases against them have been mentioned.

“The letter, for instance, asks the DM and the SSP about facts and evidence in these cases without taking the names of the BJP leaders. But the letter does mention the file numbers related to the riot cases against BJP leaders. Then the letter goes on to ask the opinion of the officials if there was a possibility of withdrawing the cases in 'public interest',” said a senior official in the Muzaffarnagar administration on condition of anonymity.

The district public prosecutor Dushyant Tyagi confirmed that the district administration received a letter from the State government department of justice.

“The district administration got a letter from the State department of justice which has asked questions and enquired about the riot related cases. The response will be sent only after consultation with the judicial officers,” he told the media on Sunday.

The most crucial part in this episode is that the government plans to withdraw the cases on the suggestion of Sanjeev Baliyan, the BJP leader who himself was booked for allegedly provoking the Hindu mob to commit violence ahead of the riots.

Baliyan and fellow BJP leaders were booked for inciting violence through their speeches in a mahapanchayat (public meeting) at Nagla Mandaur on August 30, 2013, ahead of the riots. They were charged under Sections 188 (violating prohibitory orders), 354 (assault or criminal force to deter public servants from discharging his duty) and 341 (wrongful restraint) of the Indian Penal Code. The Nagla Mandaur mahapanchayat was one of the first public meetings which led to mobilisation for the riots in the first week of September 2013. Nearly 60 people were killed and 50,000 displaced in the riots communal clashes in the aftermath of angry and retaliatory mahapanchayats held by Muslims and Hindus in the area in August 2013.

Baliyan the BJP MP from Muzaffarnagar and an accused in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots cases on Sunday claimed that he had requested the Yogi Adityanath government to withdraw the riot cases.

“The Samajwadi Party in 2013 acted in a partisan and biased manner and booked innocent people during the riots. So I had written a letter to the State law minister Brijesh Pathak. I told him that all these cases were fake and were registered against innocent people on trumped up charges. I also requested him that that there was barely any solid evidence in many cases in which people were booked as part of political vendetta,” Baliyan told the media on Sunday.

“I had requested the law minister that if the fresh investigation reveals trumped up charges then all these cases should be withdrawn,” added Baliyan who had only last week surrendered in the local court after a non-bailable warrant was issued against him for his failure to present himself in the court.

It is very important to mention here that the cases against the BJP leaders are pending and are under trial at a very slow pace due to their non-appearance in the court. Only last month the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate of Muzaffarnagar Madhu Gupta issued Non-bailable warrant against the accused BJP leaders because of their failure to be present in the court. The cases are about to reach the crucial stage of framing of charges which involves argument and counter arguments over the nature of charges slapped on the accused. It involves the judge finally deciding if the accused could be tried for the charges the police slapped against him/her in the charge-sheet.