The Allahabad High Court on Thursday rejected a petition seeking re-investigation into the alleged role of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in 2007 riots in Gorakhpur. The petitioners had demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the case.


COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

A bench of Justice Krishna Murari and Justice AC Sharma hearing the petition filed by Parvez Parwaz ruled that no case would be reopened against them. 

The bench had reserved its decision on the petition on December 18, 2017, and pronounced it on Thursday. The petitioner had challenged the order of the state government refusing to proceed against the CM. 


Mohammad Asad Hayat and Parvez, in 2008 had filed petitions seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the riots that left one dead. 

Additional Advocate General Manish Goel told the court that there was no ground on which the prosecution of Adityanath could be sought.

The petitioner, however, contended that Adityanath had incited the mob into rioting in 2007 after which he was arrested and kept in custody for 11 days. 


The case dates back to January 27, 2007, when a confrontation between two communities in Gorakhpur resulted in the death of a Hindu man. Adityanath, along with the then Gorakhpur Mayor Anju Chowdhary and legislator Radha Mohan Agarwal, was accused of inciting a mob to riot in the over a decade old case. 


Adityanath is believed to have delivered hate speeches calling for "revenge" for the dead man, according to the FIR, which was registered by the police only after the Allahabad High Court's intervention. 


The speeches were allegedly made despite a curfew and the ensuing violence lasted a fortnight, according to the FIR, the reports said.


It took several years before the request to prosecute landed with the Home Department, with arguments over the FIR oscillating between the Supreme Court and the Allahabad High Court.


The case was probed by the CB-CID of the state police and in 2013 inferred that the voice samples from the speech in question were indeed of Yogi Adityanath. 

The agency had filed the charge sheet but the then Akhilesh Yadav government had not given the go-ahead to prosecute Adityanath then.

The CB-CID in its affidavit in 2017 had said that since the case included sections 153 and 295 of the IPC, a green signal from the state government to frame charges was a must. 


(With IANS inputs)