Frame charges against Rita Joshi, Raj Babbar, others: MP MLA court

The MP MLA court in Lucknow rejected a petition of the Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday to drop cases against BJP MP Dr Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Congress leaders Raj Babbar and 16 others.Rejecting the petition, the MP MLA court judge Pawan Kumar Rai directed the prosecution to frame charges against all the accused in the next hearing on March 6. Dr Joshi was present during the hearing.

On August 17, 2015, an FIR was lodged by a sub-inspector Pyarelal Prajapati at Hazratganj police station against Congress leaders Dr Rita Bahugna Joshi, Raj Babbar, Pradeep Jain Aditya, Ajai Rai, Nirmal Khatri, Rajesh Pati Tripathi and others for making a violent attack on the police when they marched to gherao Vidhan Bhavan building.

When the police tried to stop them, they resorted to stone-pelting injuring ADM (east) Nidhi Srivastava, SP east Rajeev Malhotra, CO traffic Avneesh Mishra, SHO Alambagh Vikas Pandey, SHO Husainganj SS Singh and other policemen.

Taking serious note of the incident and charge-sheet by the Lucknow police, the MP MLA court rejected the state government application and fixed March 6 for framing of charges against all the accused.