Bulandshahr: A local court here has dropped the sedition charge against 38 people accused of orchestrating violence in the city on December 3 last year in which police inspector Subodh Kumar Singh was killed.
After the violence, the police had slapped sedition charges on all 38 accused under Section 124-A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). “Out of 38 accused, five have been charged with the murder of Subodh Kumar Singh,” said Atul Srivastava, Superintendent of Police.
The violence had erupted in the city after carcasses of 25 cattle were found in the forests close to a police station. Locals had alleged the carcasses were of cows, slaughtered illegally. A youth was also killed in the violence that ensued.
Singh succumbed to the bullet injury which he sustained in the cross firing, the post-mortem report had confirmed.
Singh was also a member of the team that probed the lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq in 2015 in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh.
The court also pulled up the local police for slapping sedition charges on 38 accused without approval from the Department of Home. However, the police are mulling to file a supplementary charge-sheet after taking the approval of the Home Department.
The violence had triggered a major controversy with over 80 retired bureaucrats accusing Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of making attempts to scuttle the probe, and also failing to protect the fundamental principles of governance and human social conduct.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]