A Muzaffarnagar court on Saturday quashed non-bailable warrants against Uttar Pradesh Minister Suresh Rana, BJP MLA Sangit Som and party MP Bhartendu Singh in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots case.
The court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Madhu Gupta on December 12 issued the warrants after the accused repeatedly did not turn up when charges were to be framed against them.
Mr. Rana and six others were booked for inciting violence through their speeches in a mahapanchayat (public meeting) at Nagla Mandaur on August 30, 2013, ahead of the riots. They were charged under Sections 188 (violating prohibitory orders), 354 (assault or criminal force to deter public servants from discharging his duty) and 341 (wrongful restraint) of the Indian Penal Code. The Nagla Mandaur mahapanchayat was one of the first public meetings which led to mobilisation for the riots in the first week of September 2013.
Angry with their repeated absence during the trial, the court asked the senior BJP leaders to be present in the court on January 19. But on Saturday, the court quashed the warrants.
Nearly 60 people were killed and 40,000 displaced in the riots communal clashes in the aftermath of angry and retaliatory mahapanchayats held by Muslims and Hindus in the area in August 2013.
The BJP leaders rejected the charges as “politically motivated” and “vendetta politics” of the then Samajwadi Party government which slapped the hate speech case against them.
