A special court in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday sentenced BJP MLA from Khatauli, Vikram Saini, and 11 others to two years in prison for rioting and arson in a case linked to the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots. The MLA, however, received bail soon after the judgment was passed.
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The riots had left at least 62 people dead and 50,000 displaced in the western Uttar Pradesh district.
“Saini along with 27 others were booked in the case under Section 147, 148, 149,307, 336, 504, 353 and 506 of IPC. The court had earlier acquitted the accused from Section 307,” government counsel Narender Sharma said.
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Among the 28 accused, one died a few years ago and 15 were acquitted for lack of evidence.
The court of additional district and sessions judge Gopal Upadhyay sentenced the BJP MLA and 11 others to two years in prison along with a fine of ₹10,000, he added.
Soon after the verdict was passed, the MLA filed a bail application in the court which was immediately accepted. Sources said Saini was planning to move the High Court in the case.
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The Muzaffarnagar riots were investigated by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the then State government lead by the Samajwadi Party.
The SIT probed over 500 first information reports lodged in the riots cases in which over 6,500 people were booked. The SIT filed the closure report in 165 cases and expunged 170 cases. Chargesheets were filed in 175 cases which are mostly being heard in the lower court of the State.
“In many of the cases in which judgement came in the past five years, the witnesses turned hostile and the court acquitted people in the absence of evidence and witness,” said Akram Akhtar chaudhary, founder of the Kairana-based Afkar India Foundation, a non-governmental organisation that helped in the rehabilitation of people displaced in the riots.
He said Saini’s was the first high-profile conviction in the riots case. However, granting bail to him immediately after the conviction was unfair to those waiting for justice for so long, he added.