Muzaffarnagar riots: Case filed against 10 community leaders

District authorities have filed a case against 10 political and community leaders including ex Bahujan Samaj Party MP Kadir Rana and former Uttar Pradesh minister Saeeduzama of Congress for allegedly making inflammatory speeches.

The case was filed on Monday in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Garima Choudhry in connection with the alleged hate speeches made in Khalapar locality of the city on August 30, 2013, by the accused in defiance of prohibitory orders clamped following tension in Kawal village in the district.

They have been charged with violating prohibitory orders and inciting communal tension by making inflammatory speeches, the Additional District Magistrate Indermani Tripathi said.

The court has fixed July 1 for further hearing in the case.

The special investigation team probing riots cases has already filed chargesheets against these 10 leaders in various sections of IPC in connection with the alleged hate speeches, Tripathi added.

Apart from Rana, the others chargesheeted were BSP MLA from Charthawal Noor Saleem Rana, party MLA from Miranpur Maulana Jamil, Congress leader Saeeduzama, 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.

The communal violence, which had broken out in September last year in Muzaffarnagar and adjoining towns, had claimed over 40 lives and rendered above 50,000 people homeless.