A special Court in Western Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar has accepted a 2017 closure report filed by the UP Police’s Special Investigation Team against BJP MLA Sangeet Som, for making and uploading an inflammatory video that incited Muzaffarnagar riots in 2013.
Sangeet Som is an MLA from Muzaffarnagar’s Sardhana constituency.
The communal violence in Muzaffarnagar had left more than 60 people killed and 40,000 displaced.
A single bench Special Judge Ram Sudh Singh accepted the closure report of SIT and stated, the main complainant of the case Inspector Subodh Kumar has died and no objection has been raised against the case closure.
Subodh Kumar was lynched to death by a mob over the allegations of illegal cow slaughter in Bulandshahar in 2018 when he went to calm the unrest that erupted over rumours of cow slaughter. Kumar’s dead body was found in suspicious conditions in his official police vehicle with his two fingers chopped with an axe.
The prosecution has stated that no evidence could be found against the accused and hence SIT went on to file the closure report in the Court.
It is to be noted that SIT had sought the information from US headquarters of Facebook about the persons who uploaded the inflammatory video which ignited the communal tensions through the intervention of Central Bureau of Investigation. However, Facebook failed to furnish the names of the social media account holders involved in the Act.
The court has also noted that the complainant had died during riots and hence the case is closed against Sangeet Som.
Responding to the Court’s decision Som told reporters, “I have said it time and again, even when they sent me to jail, that an impartial inquiry will bring out the truth. This is a fraud case, both the public and God will teach them a lesson. This is what has happened. They even formed a SIT, it was the Samajwadi Party Government that did it, and the same SIT filed a final or closure report in court that they found no proof against me.”
In December, Uttar Pradesh Government withdrew cases against several BJP leaders involved in Muzaffarnagar riots including Sangeet Som, Suresh Rana, and Kapil Dev Aggarwal. Right wing leader Sadhvi Prachi is also one of the sole perpetrators of Muzaffarnagar unrest. All of them were accused of instigating people through inflammatory and hate speeches, not following precautionary measures during riots and interfering in the duty of public servants by Samajwadi Party, then ruling party of Uttar Pradesh.
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Ghazala Ahmad is the Delhi Correspondent for The Cognate.
