The Uttar Pradesh government has sought details of cases filed against Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Sangeet Som, a senior Muzaffarnagar district official said on Wednesday. One of the cases is about a fake video that was shared widely on social media and triggered communal violence in Muzaffarnagar district in 2013, PTI reported.
Uttar Pradesh Law Minister Brijesh Pathak said the district administration had been asked for the reports after Som had submitted a letter to the state government in the last Assembly session about the cases. “Once we get the reports, the file will be sent to the principal secretary (home) and then it will come back to the government,” PTI quoted Pathak as saying. “Everything in this regard is in a very preliminary stage.”
The minster said that he was unaware of the details of the cases and that he would have to go over them before providing more information.
Additional District Magistrate Amit Singh said the Adityanath government had 13 queries regarding the cases, including their status and names of witnesses. While PTI reported that the state administration had sought details of four cases, The Indian Express reported that it had asked for details of seven cases. News agency ANI said the government wanted details of two cases, one of which is related to the Muzaffarnagar riots.
In April 2017, a Special Investigation Team conducting inquiries into the Muzaffarnagar riots gave the legislator from Sardhana a clean chit in the fake video case. The team had sought a report from Facebook about the video, which showed the murder of a youth.
Som, who was among around 200 people who had liked the video, was booked under Section 66 of the Information Technology Act and various sections of the Indian Penal Code. However, the clip was found to be fake and shot in either Pakistan or Afghanistan.
Sixty two people died in the communal violence and more than 60,000 people were displaced. There were also several reports of sexual assault and abuse in Muzaffarnagar and neighbouring Shamli district.
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