Arson at Abhimanyu’s house: Sedition charges dropped against 57 accused
CBI COURT, HOWEVER, FRAMES CHARGES FOR BID TO KILL, RIOTING, DACOITY AND PROPERTY DAMAGE AGAINST THE ACCUSED
PANCHKULA: The special CBI court on Thursday dropped the charges of sedition and those under the Arms Act against 57 accused in the case pertaining to setting on fire the house of former finance minister Capt Abhimanyu in Rohtak during the Jat quota stir in February 2016.
Special CBI judge Jagdeep Singh, however, framed the charges of attempt to murder (Section 307), and rioting (Sections 148, 149), criminal conspiracy (Section 120-B), dacoity (Section 395) and damaging property (Sections 427, 436, 450 of IPC) against the accused.
The court dropped Section 124-A (sedition) and Section 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act against them.
There are a total of 61 accused in the case and four of them had been granted exemption from appearance before the court, defence counsel Satish Kadian said.
He added that six of the accused are already undergoing imprisonment while the others had been granted bail in the case.
Kadian said the charges against the remaining four accused are likely to be framed in the next hearing which has been fixed on February 12.
The case has been under trial in the CBI court in Panchkula since 2017 after it was transferred from the district court, Rohtak, where it was first filed.
Notably, a ‘Jat Mahapanchayat’ held recently in Jind, which was attended by Veer Sain, the elder brother of Capt Abhimanyu, had announced to pardon the accused of arson at their residence in Rohtak.