BSP, BJP legislators arrested for inciting rioters in Muzaffarnagar

LUCKNOW: A day after the arrest of BJP MLA Suresh Rana, two more MLAs, Sangeet Singh Som of the BJP and Noor Salim Rana of the Bahujan Samaj Party, were arrested for inciting communal violence in west UP. All three were sent to 14-day judicial custody by a Muzaffarnagar court on Saturday. The Muzaffarnagar administration also denied permission to BJP national president Rajnath Singh to visit the district.

Although the FIRs were lodged against these MLAs on August 31 and September 2, much before the second round of more vicious violence on September 7, the arrests were made only after two courts issued non-bailable warrants against them along with 20 others. While Rana and Noor allegedly gave inflammatory speeches on August 31 in different public meetings, Som was booked on September 2 for sharing and circulating a fake video which exacerbated tensions leading to the ferocious killings in which 48 people were killed and over 50,000 displaced. Those still free include BSP MP Kadir Rana, BSP MLA Maulvi Jameel, BJP MLA Kunwar Bhartendu Singh and former Congress minister Sayeed-uz-Zaman. IG (law and order) R K Vishwakarma told reporters that the three legislators were arrested within 24 hours of the end of assembly session and others will be nabbed soon. Viswakarma said the arrests were made following the court orders though he accepted that local police could have acted had it wanted to soon after cases were lodged. "The booked persons could have been presented before court then also for further course of action as is being done now," he said. Meanwhile, in a bid to cash in on the polarisation in west UP, the BJP gave a strike call in Muzaffarnagar and adjoining districts on Sunday, besides statewide demonstration on Monday, to protest against the arrest of their MLAs, alleging that the government was targeting its MLAs, taking no action against minister Azam Khan accused of pressuring police to delay administrative response. TOI