Lucknow: BSP and BJP today staged a walkout in Uttar Pradesh Assembly alleging that the state government has failed to check incidents of communal violence and lodged cases against innocent people in Muzaffarnagar riots. The matter was raised during Question Hour by Congress member Nadeem Javed, who sought to know from the government about the number of riots which took place in the state between March 2013 and Dec 2014 and action taken against the guilty.
He said that 247 riots were witnessed in the state, maximum in the country, adding, social and electronic media were used in the riots and its spread in rural areas too. BJP member Suresh Rana claimed that in Muzaffarnagar riots, FIR were lodged against 11 persons, who were not alive during the riots.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mohd Azam Khan accepted that the social and electronic media were used during the riots, saying it could only be checked through law. He said that those found guilty in inquiry in Muzaffarnagar riots were booked and withdrawing cases against such persons would not be right.
Rana said that cases on dead persons should be withdrawn and cited example of an 87-year-old man, who was booked in a rape case. “A high-level committee should be constituted to withdraw such cases on innocent persons,” Rana said. To this, Khan said that rape should not be associated with age and asked the age of Asaram Bapu, who is in jail. When BJP member Suresh Kumar Khanna demanded that the government should ensure justice to innocent people lodged in jails, Khan said that if something like that had happened the government will act after getting a written complaint in this regard.
What irked the BJP members was when Khan asked whether a high-power committee was constituted in Gujarat to ensure release of those held during riots there, and they staged a walkout.
Later, Leader of Opposition and BSP member Swami Prasad Maurya said that suspision arose in the number of cases registered in Saharanpur and Muzaffarnagar riots. BSP members walked out of the House when Khan alleged that a medical officer was killed inside jail during the BSP regime.
