By TwoCircles.net Special Correspondent,
Lucknow: Claiming to be saviour of Muslims, the Akhilesh Yadav led Samajwadi Party government at Uttar Pradesh showed leniency towards BJP’s leader and MP Varun Gandhi. The result he was acquitted by the court from the charges of hate speech.
The cases of hate speech were registered four years ago ( 2009) against Varun Gandhi. Surprisingly, the then District Magistrate (DM) who himself had lodged case against Varun Gandhi turned hostile in the case. Not only this, all the 14 witness turned hostile in the case. Surprisingly all the 14 witness were employees of the UP government.
On 7 March 2009, Varun Gandhi reportedly had delivered hate speech against Muslims in Dalchand locality of Pilibhit. The then DM of Pilibhit, Mahendra Aggrawal had himself lodged a case against Varun Gandhi. It was clearly mentioned in his report that Varun Gandhi is using language against Muslims. A case was registered under section 153A, 295A, 505(2) and 125 People representation Act. It was the government of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Mayawati was its Chief Minister. She acted promptly and Varun was not only arrested but even National Security Act slapped on him.
But during these four years, the government at Lucknow changed and Akhilesh Yadav is now CM.
In this case, Mahendra Aggrawal was himself DM and complainant and the witnesses were Zameer Alam, the then ADM of Pilibhit and 13 other police personnales. All of them including DM, ADM and policemen turned hostile in the court. Zameer Alam who had prepared the report of Varun Gandhi’s speech stated in the court that he did not see or hear any of Varun Gandhi’s meetings. Two other important witnesses Inspector Maniram Rao and Rajveer Singh too turned hostile.
Still there was hope and state government could appeal in higher court within 60 days of the judgement. But it kept quiet there was no development in this regard. It also did not ask the officials who had turned hostile about their behaviour. No questions were asked at any level in the government as if there was mute consent to all the development.
As the news reached Muslim clerics, there were statements decrying such act by the Akhilesh Yadav government. Coming on backfoot, IG Crime Ashish Gupta clarified on Wednesday that CJM court had acquitted Varun Gandhi in two different cases on 27 February and 5 March.
State government still has time for filing an appeal. In the case which was decided on February 27, there is time till 25 May and in the 5 March case, there is time till 3 June. Legal opinion is being sought and appeal will be filed.