Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik on Tuesday, January 9, paved the way for withdrawing the 22-year-old case against Yogi Adityanath and 12 others by giving a push to the controversial Uttar Pradesh Criminal Law (Composition of Offences and Abatement of Trials (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

The Governor cleared eight bills in Vidhan Sabha, which included the bill of quashing 22,000 politically motivated cases across the state.

Quick Recap

The Yogi Adityanath govt ordered to quash a 1995 case against Yogi Adityanath, Shiv Pratap Shukla (now Minister of State for Finance at the Centre), Sheetal Pandey (BJP MLA from Sahajanwa) and ten others who were booked for violating prohibitory orders.

The case, lodged at Pipiganj police station in Gorakhpur district, was pending in a local court, had earlier issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against the accused for failing to appear before the court for the hearings. Prosecution Officer, Gorakhpur, B D Mishra, said: “The court had ordered NBWs against all named but the warrants were not issued then,” according to The Indian Express report.

The government order stated that based on a letter filed by the District Magistrate on October 27, a scrutiny has been done. On December 20, the state government sent a letter to the District Magistrate, Gorakhpur to file a petition in the court to withdraw the cases. The letter had the names of Yogi Adityanath, Sheetal Pandey, Shiv Pratap Shukla and ten others.

According to the records of the Pipiganj police station, the case under IPC section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) was filed against Yogi Adityanath and 14 others on May 27, 1995, for holding “dharna pradarshan” or demonstration despite prohibitory orders being imposed by the district administration.

The order came a day before the Uttar Pradesh Criminal Law (Composition of Offences and Abatement of Trials) (Amendment) Bill, 2017 was tabled in the state Assembly.

Yogi himself told the Assembly that the 20,000 cases against politicians and legislators were all “politically motivated” and the amendment in the Uttar Pradesh Criminal law will bring an end to all such cases.

The Logical Indian Take

There have been other cases against the CM as well. There was a separate case against him for inciting violence against a particular religious community with hate speech. Yogi Adityanath himself in 2014 admitted that he utter hateful speeches against Muslims. Yet, in May 2017 the state government submitted before the Allahabad high court that it would not prosecute the CM in the case and had provided a 126-page document ‘counter-affidavit’ which listed the reasons why they will not do so.

All these are ways to protect the CM of the state. Such brazen attitude is not acceptable. Such a precedent by a CM who is supposed to adhere to the laws of the country is not right. The Logical Indian condemns these efforts and hopes that all politicians and citizens are considered equal in the eyes of the law.