‘Don’t take any coercive action against accused’

PRAYAGRAJ: The Allahabad high court on Friday directed the state government not to take any coercive action against Mohd Fasih Zaidi—one of the accused in 27 land grabbing cases related to land of Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur.

The order was passed with condition that the petitioner will cooperate in the trial of the case. Justice Suneet Kumar passed the order in a petition filed by Zaidi seeking quashing of summons issued against him.

Last year, 27 FIRs related to land grabbing were registered against senior SP leader and MP Azam Khan and his associates.

In March this year, the name of the petitioner was added during investigation by the police and later on September 16, summons were issued against the petitioner in all the 27 cases by the trial court of Rampur which were challenged in the present petition.

Appearing for the petitioner, senior advocate Manish Tiwari argued, “The applicant is not named in the FIRs. He was a member of Mohammad Ali Jauhar University Trust and his name was implicated during investigation by police. However, there is no evidence of culpability or complicity of the applicant in the commission of the alleged offence.”

“The primary allegation in the FIRs were against the co-accused and not against the petitioner that they coerced some of the farmers to transfer their land in favour of Mohammad Ali Jauhar University Trust against their free will. The criminal prosecution against the petitioner is abuse of the process of court,” Tiwari said.

Appearing for the state government, additional advocate general Vinod Diwakar raised preliminary objection on the maintainability of the petition assailing summoning order in all 27 cases and sought time to address the question of maintainability.

The court fixed January 11, 2021, as the next date of hearing in the case.