The UP Government’s Colossal Cover-Up Attempt to Protect Adityanath
By Ajit Sahi on
Successive UP governments, BJP and non-BJP, have sought to scuttle the investigation into Adityanath’s role in anti-Muslim violence ten years ago. But there is enough in the case to still be revived if the court wants to.
Allahabad: Two months ago, the Uttar Pradesh government told the high court here that it would not prosecute chief minister Adityanath on charges of inciting and leading widespread anti-Muslim violence in Gorakhpur and nearby districts a decade ago. In response to a question the bench posed at the time, his government has now submitted a “counter affidavit” to the Allahabad high court providing a list of reasons to justify that decision.
However, the claims in this 126-page document submitted earlier this month contradict official records since 2007 when the violence occurred. Though there is no evidence that the police have ever questioned Adityanath, leave alone investigated him, to verify the charges of rioting, arson, assault and murder, the counter affidavit is a virtual exoneration of the BJP politician. It also doesn’t answer a critical question the court asked in April: can the chief minister legally decide his government’s position on that criminal case given that he is “a prime accused” in it?
Neither Adityanath, who became chief minister in March, nor his co-accused have ever denied the allegations entered in the FIR in the case. In a television interview in 2014, Adityanath not only proudly admitted giving the incendiary anti-Muslim speech that, as the FIR notes, caused widespread violence and murders, but said he’d do it all over again if needed. Yet, the counter affidavit pointedly refuses to accept that as evidence.
A brief chronology
A day after mobs, allegedly incited by Adityanath, rioted on January 27, 2007, Parvez Parwaz, a resident of Gorakhpur, sought to file an FIR. When the police stonewalled him, he moved the high court, which ordered the FIR registered. That was done in November 2008. The FIR invoked the following charges against Adityanath and others under the Indian Penal Code (IPC):
Successive UP governments, BJP and non-BJP, have sought to scuttle the investigation into Adityanath’s role in anti-Muslim violence ten years ago. But there is enough in the case to still be revived if the court wants to.
Allahabad: Two months ago, the Uttar Pradesh government told the high court here that it would not prosecute chief minister Adityanath on charges of inciting and leading widespread anti-Muslim violence in Gorakhpur and nearby districts a decade ago. In response to a question the bench posed at the time, his government has now submitted a “counter affidavit” to the Allahabad high court providing a list of reasons to justify that decision.
However, the claims in this 126-page document submitted earlier this month contradict official records since 2007 when the violence occurred. Though there is no evidence that the police have ever questioned Adityanath, leave alone investigated him, to verify the charges of rioting, arson, assault and murder, the counter affidavit is a virtual exoneration of the BJP politician. It also doesn’t answer a critical question the court asked in April: can the chief minister legally decide his government’s position on that criminal case given that he is “a prime accused” in it?
Neither Adityanath, who became chief minister in March, nor his co-accused have ever denied the allegations entered in the FIR in the case. In a television interview in 2014, Adityanath not only proudly admitted giving the incendiary anti-Muslim speech that, as the FIR notes, caused widespread violence and murders, but said he’d do it all over again if needed. Yet, the counter affidavit pointedly refuses to accept that as evidence.
A brief chronology
A day after mobs, allegedly incited by Adityanath, rioted on January 27, 2007, Parvez Parwaz, a resident of Gorakhpur, sought to file an FIR. When the police stonewalled him, he moved the high court, which ordered the FIR registered. That was done in November 2008. The FIR invoked the following charges against Adityanath and others under the Indian Penal Code (IPC):
- Murder; attempt to murder
- Criminal conspiracy
- Unlawful assembly; rioting; dacoity
- Trespass; destruction of property; assault; wrongful restraint
- Wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot
- Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony
- Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs
- Asserting that a class of persons be deprived of their rights as citizens
- Injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class
- Mischief by fire or explosive substance intending to cause destruction of a place of worship
- Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration
