Move to withdraw UP riot cases may hit SP, BSP wall

LUCKNOW: The Yogi Adityanath government’s move to withdraw cases registered against Hindus during the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots is likely to hit a judicial hurdle as the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have decided to challenge the move in court.

Law minister Brijesh Pathak on Thursday said the government plans to withdraw all such cases that were filed due to political reasons.

Pathak denied that his government had initiated the exercise with a view to help the Muzaffarnagar riots accused. “Whether riot cases or not we will seek withdrawal of all such cases that are politically motivated,” Pathak said. He added that leaders of all parties have approached the government to demand withdrawal of ‘politically motivated’ cases against them.

“I have the entire list (of leaders) with me,” Pathak said. “More than 62 lakh cases are pending in various courts. It’s a serious issue. We will definitely withdraw cases that certainly were filed on extraneous considerations,” he said. The state government has already issued an order for withdrawal of about 20,000 ‘political’ cases registered against political leaders, legislators and ministers in the state under the Uttar Pradesh Criminal Law (Composition of Offences and Abatement of Trials) (Amendment) Bill, 2017 passed by the legislative assembly.

Talking to HT, principal secretary, law, Umesh Kumar said there is procedure under section 321 of the code of criminal procedure under which cases are withdrawn by the state government. The application for withdrawal of cases has been forwarded to the district magistrate of the respective district.