A special court in Barabanki Friday rejected the UP government's plea to withdraw a criminal case against alleged HuJI operatives Tariq Qasmi and Khalid Mujahid, who were arrested on December 20, 2007 with arms and explosives. Both were wanted in connection with the serial blasts which took place in Lucknow and Faizabad courts in November 2007.

District Government Counsel V K Dwivedi said Special Judge Kalpana Mishra, who is hearing the case, rejected the government's plea on the ground that there is no public interest in withdrawing the case. He said the court also noted that the government has not elaborated their decision of withdrawing the case.

Defence counsel Randheer Singh Suman said another reason why the court rejected the application was that no government employee had filed an affidavit in support of the application moved to withdraw the case. Suman also said despite being a confidential document, the application was moved in the court openly.

Minorities Welfare Minister Azam Khan said the state government would appeal against the court's decision. "This is not the last court. We will appeal in higher court and in the end there is also God's court," Khan told reporters in Lucknow.

He said the government has its own rights while court has its own rights. "There is no clash between them. We follow every directive of the courts. The most recent being High Court's directions against some officials in Lucknow which we followed," he stated.

He said the government takes the decision to withdraw a case when it believes that a person is innocent. "There is no case of clash between law and government order," he said.

Azam also said the process of dispensing justice (withdrawing cases) should not stop, else terrorism will rise. "It should not be taken as a jolt to the government. As I said, it is not the last court," Khan said.

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