Yogi-led BJP govt starts withdrawal of 131 cases after meeting Khap leaders

Muzaffarnagar:The 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots case took a new turn after the Yogi Adityanath led BJP government initiated the process on withdrawal of all 131 cases, including 13 of murder and 11 of attempt to murder in both Muzaffarnagar and Shamli.
Quoting official documents, The Indian Express said that these cases include charges under IPC sections related to “heinous” crimes with a minimum punishment of seven years in jail.
Besides, the report said that there are 16 cases under section 153 A on charges of promoting enmity on religious grounds, and two under section 295 A for deliberate and malicious acts intended to insult a religion or religious beliefs.
At least 62 persons died and thousands lost their homes in the riots that took place in September 2013, mentioned the report.
Following the violence, a total of 503 cases were registered against around 1,455 persons at police stations in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli by the then Samajwadi Party government, the report said.
The decision to start the process on the withdrawal was taken after a delegation of khap leaders from Muzaffarnagar and Shamli, including BJP MP Sanjiv Balyan and the party’s Budhana MLA Umesh Malik, met Chief Minister Adityanath on February 5 and presented a list of 179 cases, the report said.
Quoting BJP MP Balyan, the report said that in the list presented to the Chief Minister, all the accused were Hindus.
On February 23, UP’s Law Department sent letters signed by Special Secretary, Rajesh Singh, to the district magistrates of Muzaffarnagar and Shamli, seeking details of the 131 cases under 13 points, including current status, the report mentioned.
The report further quoting BJP MP Balyan said: “In the meeting with the Chief Minister last month, I requested him to consider the withdrawal of 179 cases in which over 850 Hindus were held accused. All these cases were registered in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts. We had been preparing the list for a while now. The cases include those of arson, attempt to murder and damage of properties but not murder.”
However, the report quoted MLA Malik confirming that “there are murder cases too on the list”.
“After receiving the list, the Chief Minister had told us that list would be sent to the law department for opinion. I don’t know the present status of the list,” report quoted Malik as having said.
On January 5, the state government had sought a report from Muzaffarnagar administration on the withdrawal of nine cases against Malik, including two for the riots, the report mentioned.
A 22-year-old backward caste youth was allegedly thrashed and paraded naked by the family members of his girlfriend, a dalit, after he was found with her in a restaurant here, police said today.
In a relief to RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s son Tej Pratap Yadav, the CBI on Thursday told the Supreme Court that it did not find anything against him in the murder of journalist Rajdeo Ranjan.