The chief secretary of the Uttar Pradesh government, Rahul Bhatnagar, on Thursday told the Allahabad High Court that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath cannot be prosecuted in the 2007 Gorakhpur riots case. Adityanath was accused of making a hate speech during that time.

As per an NDTV report, Bhatnagar told the court that a forensic examination of a CD of the alleged hate speech by Yogi Adityanath was found to be tampered.

Earlier, the Allahabad High Court had summoned Bhatnagar, directing him to bring along all documents relating to the case.

The order was passed on a petition filed by Parvez Parwaz, the complainant in the FIR that was lodged at Cantt police station of Gorakhpur in connection with the riots, and Asad Hayat, a witness in the case.

In the petition, apprehensions were raised that the CB- CID, which is an arm of the state police and at present probing the riots, may not conduct an impartial inquiry and a prayer was made that directions be issued for handing over the investigation to an independent agency.

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Significantly, on a previous date of hearing in the matter, the petitioners' counsel S F A Naqvi had raised doubts over the CB-CID's ability to conduct a proper inquiry as "the person against whom sanction for prosecution has been granted by the state government has himself become the head of the state".

Naqvi had made the submission in response to an affidavit filed by the CB-CID wherein it had been stated that the state government had granted sanction, under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code (inciting communal violence), to prosecute all those who have been named in the FIR including Yogi, the then Gorakhpur Mayor Anju Chaudhary and local BJP MLA Radha Mohan Das Agarwal.

With PTI Inputs