New Delhi: The Yogi Adityanath led government of Uttar Pradesh is trying hard to get its leaders out of the Muzaffarnagar riots mess. Even serious cases like rioting, arson, attempt to murder and even murder are being termed as ‘old’ and ‘not so serious’ cases. A total of 131 cases involving leaders are being neutralized by the so called fire brand leader. All of the cases filed are against a particular community.

Last month, when former Union Minister Sanjeev Balyan along with Umesh Malik, met the UP Chief Minister with a list of total 150 cases which were called for withdrawal, termed the cases are serious. “Most are bogus litigation registered by the police,” said the lawmaker, who is a Muzaffarnagar representative in Lok Sabha. “Women and youths are framed in false cases. They have been running around courts for the last 5 years”.

The Muzaffarnagar 2013 riots led to the killing of at least 60 people during the, and after that police filed more than 150 cases.

When inquired about the issue, Brajesh Pathak, law minister of the state, told, “We had taken a call to reduce pendency of cases… we want to withdraw politically motivated cases in Uttar Pradesh”. The minister, however, refused to elaborate on “specific cases”. “Don’t have those files, but yes, cases are filed to trouble people and yes, we do intend to take such cases back,” he added.

About two months ago, the government tried to drop all the cases against the leaders, Mr Balyan, Mr Malik and BJP leader Suresh Rana. All of them were accused of making provocative speeches to incite riots in Muzaffarnagar district.

The government inquired with district administration whether the Senior Superintendent of Police thought that the cases against Mr Malik can be withdrawn. The other accused were not named, but numbers of the related cases’ file were written in the letter. He inquired whether can the cases be withdrawn in general public interest.

Slowly, many cases, including that of Yogi Adityanath are being withdrawn just after the state government approved a controversial law in last December that gives amnesty to political leaders to what the CM Yogi had called as ‘old’ and ‘not so serious’ cases.

The opposition party of the state, Samajwadi Party, which had already opposed the bill in the assembly before the approval, has accused the Yogi government of favouring a particular community. Senior Samajwadi Party leader Ramgopal Yadav, who is a close aide of former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, said, “Yogi is doing everything to please a specific community. But his formula will not work”.