Muzaffarnagar riots: 10 Muslim leaders charged for inciting communal tension

Bahujan Samaj Party Member of Parliament Kadir Rana, two party legislators and former Uttar Pradesh minister Saeed-uz-Zama of the Congress are among 10 persons chargesheeted by the Special Investigation Team probing the Muzaffarnagar riots for provoking communal tension with inflammatory speeches during a Muslim community panchayat.

The chargesheet was filed in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Narender Kumar by the SIT team in connection with the alleged hate speeches made in Khalapar locality of the city on August 30, 2013 by the accused. They were charged for defying prohibitory orders clamped following tension in Kawal village in the district, sources said.

Apart from Rana, the others chargesheeted are BSP Member of Legislative Assembly from Charthawal Noor Saleem Rana, party MLA from Miranpur Maulana Jamil, Congress leader Saeed-uz-Zama, his son Salman Saeed, city board member Asad Zama Ansari, ex-member of the city board Naushad Qureshi, trader Ahsan Qureshi, Sultan Mushir and Naushad, they said.

They have been charged with violating prohibitory orders and inciting communal tension by making inflammatory speeches. The development came even as the UP government had in January moved to withdraw cases related to riots against the Muslim leaders with the law ministry seeking report from district authorities, which were understood to be not in favour of such a step.

Rana had left the Samajwadi Party in 2007 to join Rashtriya Lok Dal and then switched to the BSP in 2009.

Image: Communal violence claimed 60 lives in Muzaffarnagar last year