File rejoinder affidavit: HC to petitioners

ALLAHABAD: The Allahabad high court on Friday directed the petitioners in the 2007 Gorakhpur riot case to file rejoinder affidavit within three weeks and fixed July 27 as the next date of hearing.

One person was killed and several others sustained injuries in the incident. During the course of hearing, the state government filed the counter affidavit in the case. The rejoinder affidavit is reply to the counter affidavit. Hearing a writ petition filed by Parvez Parwaz and Asad Hayat, a division bench comprising justice Krishna Murari and justice KP Singh passed the above order.

Parwaz had filed the FIR in the case while other petitioner Asad Hayat is a witness to the decade old incident. The petitioners have requested the court to direct an investigation by an independent agency into an FIR registered in 2008 in Gorakhpur against the then local MP Yogi Adityanath and three others.

In the FIR lodged with the Cantonment police station of Gorakhpur, Parvez Parwaz accused Adityanath, the then city mayor Anju Chaudhri, the then MLA Radha Mohan Agarwal and one more person of inciting communal violence. The petitioners expressed the apprehension that the state police may not be impartial in the probing the matter. The riots in Gorakhpur were sparked allegedly after a provocative speech by Yogi Adityanath, who is also the head of a local Hindu sect, outside the railway station. The then MP was speaking in response to the killing of a Hindu youth Raj Kumar Agrahri, who was stabbed to death in clash between Hindu and Muslim groups during Moharram processions.

THE PETITIONERS HAVE REQUESTED TO DIRECT AN INVESTIGATION BY AN INDEPENDENT AGENCY INTO AN FIR REGISTERED IN 2008