india

Updated: Dec 21, 2017 18:38 IST

Uttar Pradesh government is bringing a law to withdraw “politically-motivated” cases, registered against ministers, legislators and others in the state, chief minister Yogi Adityanath told the assembly on Thursday.

The proposed law seeks to scrap about 20,000 such cases registered in various parts of the state, the chief minister said without elaborating further as to what would be the yardstick to define a case as political in nature.

During a discussion on the controversial Uttar Pradesh Control of Organised Crime Bill (UPCOCB) 2017, the chief minister said cases were registered against legislators and ministers for staging a protest and even warrants were issued against them for not appearing before the courts.

He said the proposed law would mean end of all such cases of political nature against leaders cutting across party lines. He, however, did not specify which 20,000 cases would be withdrawn.

On the UPCOCB, the chief minister assured the House against any misuse of the law aimed at curbing organised crime and terror.

“This government has neither misused any law nor will it misuse this one. We are here to provide security to people. The opposition is making statements against the proposed law. Opposing it would mean defending those indulging in organised crime,” he said.

Opposing the bill, leader of the opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary of the Samajwadi Party said it would lead to an ‘undeclared emergency’ and would be used to target the media.

“Newspapers and news channels will have to take prior permission from the police to publish news items. Such restrictions were imposed on the media during the Emergency,” said Chaudhary.

He also referred to the objections made by BJP leaders Suresh Khanna and Hukum Singh against a similar law that was introduced by the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government on November 5, 2007.

A high-powered committee, comprising senior officers of the state home department and the police, drafted the bill after studying the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) and a draft bill from the central government.