The Uttar Pradesh government has withdrawn 77 cases relating to the Muzaffarnagar riots without giving any reasons, the Supreme Court was told on Tuesday. This was part of a report that was filed by amicus curiae senior advocate Vijay Hansaria in a case relating to expediting cases against MPs and MLAs.
Besides Uttar Pradesh, several other states have also withdrawn a number of cases against legislators.
A bench led by Chief Justice NV Ramana will hear the matter today.
In his report, Mr Hansaria said 77 cases linked to Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013, for which the accused would have got life term in jail, were withdrawn by the Uttar Pradesh government without assigning any reason.
Mr Hansaria wants these 77 cases to be examined by the High Court. In its last hearing, the Supreme Court had directed that cases against MPs and MLAs cannot be closed without the permission of the High Court.
Altogether, 510 cases on the 2013 riots were registered against 6,869 accused after the riots, in which more than 60 people died and hundreds were injured.
Of these, chargesheet was filed in 175 cases, final reports were submitted in 165 cases and 170 cases were expunged.
Mr Hansaria has also pointed out that the Karnataka government has withdrawn 62 cases without assigning any reason, Tamil Nadu has withdrawn four cases, Telangana has withdrawn 14 cases and Kerala has withdrawn 36 cases.
In December last year, Uttar Pradesh had drawn up a list of leaders against whom cases were being withdrawn. The list included three BJP MLAs -- Sangeet Som, Suresh Rana, Kapil Dev - and right-wing leader Sadhvi Prachi.
The move came after Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik signed off a bill that sought to drop 20,000 cases against politicians. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said the cases were "not serious" and were "pending for a very long time".
In March this year, cases against 12 BJP leaders -- Suresh Rana, Sangeet Som, and Sadhvi Prachi - were dropped, with the assent of a special court.
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