Updated: December 24, 2020 7:28:26 am
BJP MLA Sangeet Som
Yogi Adityanath’s government has taken steps to drop a case against BJP leaders, including three MLAs, who are accused of delivering inflammatory speeches at a mahapanchayat organized in the Nagla Mandor village of Muzaffarnagar in September 2013.
The defendants in the case brought to the Shikheda Police Station are Sangeet Som, Sardhana MLA (Meerut); Suresh Rana, MLA of Thana Bhawan (Shamli); and Kapil Dev, who represents Muzaffarnagar Sadar’s seat in the Assembly; apart from the Hindutva leader Sadhvi Prachi.
BJP leaders are also accused of violating prohibition orders, engaging in discussions with government machinery and participating in arson.
Muzaffarnagar government adviser Rajeev Sharma told The Indian Express that a “withdrawal request [in the case] it has been transferred to the court in question and the matter is still pending ”.
On September 7, 2013, the Jat community called a mahapanchayat at an intermediate university in Nagla Mandor village to decide the next course of action in the murder of two young men in Kawaal village on August 27, 2013.
The young men, Sachin and Gaurav, were lynched by a Muslim mob shortly after killing a young Muslim, Shahnawaz Qureshi.
Riots broke out after people returning from the mahapanchayat were attacked. The violence spread to other areas of Muzaffarnagar and surrounding districts. Sixty-five people died and around 40,000 were displaced. A total of 510 criminal cases were registered and records were presented in 175. In the rest, the police have presented reports of closure or erasure of the case.
The mahapanchayat case was brought by the then Shikheda Police Station Officer Charan Singh Yadav on September 7, 2013. Forty people, including Som, Rana, Kapil Dev, Prachi and former MP Harendra Singh Malik, were accused of giving inflammatory speeches against a community, violating prohibition orders, conducting a mahapanchayat without obtaining permission from the district administration, creating obstruction to dissuade public servants from doing their duty and setting a motorcycle on fire, according to the records.
The defendants were registered under Sections 188 of the IPC (joining an illegal assembly armed with a deadly weapon), 353 (assault or use of criminal force to dissuade a public servant), 153A (promoting enmity for reasons of religion, etc., and acts detrimental to the maintenance of harmony), 341 (undue subjection), 435 (damage caused by fire or explosive substance with the intention of causing harm).
The Special Investigation Team formed by the state government filed indictments against 14 defendants, including Som, Rana, Kapil Dev, Prachi and Malik.
In February 2018, a delegation of Khap Chaudharis led by BJP MP Sanjiv Balyan met with Chief Minister Adityanath in Lucknow and urged him to drop the cases against Hindus in connection with the Muzaffarnagar riots.
Subsequently, the state government initiated the case withdrawal process requesting details of the Muzaffarnagar and Shamli district administrations below 13 points, including this case. The government also requested an opinion on the withdrawal of cases from the District Magistrate, the Police Superintendent and the Superior Prosecutor.
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