On January 4, charges were finally framed in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots case, by a special MP MLA court in Muzaffarnagar against 19 people including Uttar Pradesh BJP leaders Kapil Dev Agarwal, Sanjeev Balyan, ex-UP minister Suresh Rana and Samajwadi Party MP Harender Malik for violating prohibitory orders and inciting communal tension.
The framing of the charges took this long because it was a pre-requisite that all accused be present in the court together for the charges to be announced. In the interim, more than 1,000 people have been acquitted in 97 cases of rape, murder, arson and robbery by district and sessions courts which are trying the cases that mention names, apart from those of the public representatives who are being tried by the MP MLA court.
In September 2013, over one and a half lakh people attended a mahapanchayat some 20 kilomeres away from Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh. These people were from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi and had gathered to oppose a clash on August 27 at Kawal village under Jansath tehsil of Muzaffarnagar. Three youths from two communities had been killed over a trivial incident and the incident given a communal colour.
Following the killings, old videos of Hindus being killed in Pakistan were widely circulated as were inflammatory messages. Large meetings and also shok sabhas (condolence meetings) were held for the two Hindu brothers killed in the violence.
(File) People look through the windows of their homes as security forces patrol during an army-enforced curfew imposed in Muzaffarnagar | AP
The police, after the August 27 violence, raided Kawal. The Samajwadi Party government of the day reacted by shunting out the district magistrate and the seniormost police officer, under the guise that the raid had not followed protocol. The dominant Jat population had, however, concluded that they were shifted because of their castes.
Random attacks also happened in the immediate aftermath. The air was thick with rumours that the government was supporting Muslims. Extreme Hindu elements vitiated the atmosphere by further fear-mongering. Videos on how to make petrol bombs and put together arms were also in circulation, as were inflammatory SMSes.
Thus, by the time the mahapanchayat happened on September 7, the atmosphere was already tense.
Inflammatory speeches were delivered at the gathering by former Union minister Sanjeev Balyan, MP Harendra Malik, and state minister Kapil Dev Agarwal. Others who had joined in, included Sadhvi Prachi and Acharya Narsinghanand Yati Maharaj, besides former ministers and MLAs. Some of the attendees at the event carried swords and guns. The running theme in the speeches was how the state government was constantly discriminating against the Hindus.
(File) A policeman holds recovered arms during a door-to-door search operation in Muzaffarnagar | AP
A political slugfest followed with the then chief minister Akhilesh Yadav blaming the BJP for vitiating the atmosphere. The Congress blamed Yadav’s ‘inactivity’ for the violence. The BJP had condemned the Samajwadi Party as a ‘self-styled’ champion of secularism which had overlooked the rights of Hindus.
The police, it is alleged, stood by, doing nothing, both when the speeches were made and when the violence spread. More than 500 FIRs were filed later on, and allegations that the police had received bribes for quashing many of these were also made.
The speeches delivered at the gathering led to the killing of 200 Muslims, while 500 went missing. A further 40,000 migrated from some 50 Jat-dominated villages as per a writ petition filed in the Supreme Court of India later that year. These figures are at variance with inquiries conducted by a Special Investigation Team that pegged the number of dead at 60-plus.
A one-member inquiry commission was set up by the state government, which pinned the blame for the violence on intelligence failure and laxity on the part of top officials.
The Supreme Court, responding to the earlier mentioned petition, had prima facie held the state government responsible for the violence and had ordered it to arrest all those who instigated it, irrespective of their political affiliations.
The said petition had also alleged that many thousand persons including infants, children, women and elderly were without food and shelter in various villages, and no facilities were being made available by the administration. Besides this, huge illegal and unauthorised arms and ammunitions had been recovered in and around Muzaffarnagar. “Displaced persons of all communities are compelled to live in shelter camps where adequate arrangements are becoming the problem of survival”, read the petition.
On January 30, 2025, the special court will start hearing testimonies in the case.
