UP government declines to try CM Adityanath in 2007 riot case

Lucknow, May 11 (IANS) The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday told the Allahabad High Court (HC) that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath cannot be prosecuted in a riots case involving a 2007 hate speech.

Yogi was then a Lok Sabha member from Gorakhpur constitguency.

Chief Secretary Rahul Bhatnagar, who was summoned by the High Court, told it that earlier this month the state's home department had refused to grant permission for the Chief Minister's trial.

The top bureaucrat was summoned by the court to explain why the five people, including Adityanath, were not being prosecuted in a case of riots in Gorakhpur in 2007.

The court had also asked Bhatnagar to come armed with all relevant documents with regard to the matter.

Explaining the stand of the state government, the Chief Secretary apprised the court that a forensic test of the CD of Yogi Adityanath's alleged hate speech of January 27, 2007, showed it was tampered with.

The case was filed in 2008 by local journalist Pervez Parwaz and social activist Asad Hayat, who is also witness to Yogi's speech.

The probe into the allegations was completed in 2015 but despite a government headed by the Samajwadi Party, no sanction was granted for Yogi's prosecution and the matter remained in limbo.

After the statement by the Chief Secretary, the petitioners said that they will move court again to challenge the government stand.

They also scoffed at the development by saying that it was ridiculous that the man in-charge of the home department, Yogi Adityanath, has given himself a clean chit.