TCN News
A local court in Muzafarnagar has acquitted 11 persons accused who were among the mobs that set houses on fire and looted valuables in Lisadh village in Muzafarnagar in 2013.
The additional District Sessions Judge Sanjive Kumar Tiwari acquitted the 13 persons, two of whom died while the case was going on, for lack of evidence. They were charged for arson (section 436 of IPC) and dacoity (section 395 of IPC) but the complainant Suleman and his sons, also the prime witnesses in the case turned hostile.
In his complaint, Suleman had said that after the riots broke out a mob entered his house shouting insulting and offensive slogans and ransacking the house took away cash, jewellery and other valuables and then set ablaze the house. Fearing for their life Suleman and his family fled to the neighbouring village and took shelter there in a rescue camp.
The riots that broke out in September 2013 killed nearly 60 people and displaced around 40,000 persons in villages of Muzafarnagar and other districts. The Special investigation team later probed 510 cases and had filed charges against 175 cases. The Uttar Pradesh Government headed by Yogi Adityanath sanctioned the withdrawal of 38 cases acquitting at least 100 accused persons this year in February 2019.