UP govt begins withdrawal of seven cases against BJP legislator Sangeet Som, including four related to Muzaffarnagar riots

Lucknow/Muzaffarnagar: The Uttar Pradesh government has begun the process of withdrawing seven cases registered against controversial Bharataiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Sangeet Som, including those related to 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots. The seven cases were registered between 2013 and 2017 — four in Muzaffarnagar, and one each in Saharanpur, Meerut and Gautam Buddh Nagar districts, according to officials. [caption id=“attachment_1683023” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of BJP MLA Sangeet Som. News18[/caption] Som had given a letter to the government during the last Assembly session in connection with the cases and reports have been sought from the district administrations, Uttar Pradesh law minister Brijesh Pathak said on Wednesday. “Once we get the reports, the file will be sent to the principal secretary (home) and then it will come back to the government,” Pathak told PTI. The minister said he did not know the details of the cases and added he will have to go through the files before sharing more information. “Everything in this regard is in a very preliminary stage,” he said. Muzaffarnagar Additional District Magistrate Amit Singh said the government has sought from him the details on the four cases registered against the Sardhana MLA in the district. The four cases include one related to a fake but inflammatory video uploaded on social media in which he was given a clean chit by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the riots. In April 2017, the investigating officer of the case filed a final report in a court, saying no evidence was found against the MLA. Som and more than 200 others who had “liked” the video were booked under various sections of the IPC and section 66 of the Information Technology (IT) Act on 2 September, 2013. Section 66 of the IT Act criminalises sending offensive messages through a computer or other communication devices. The video, showing the killing of a youth, had triggered communal riots in Muzaffarnagar in which more than 60 people died and 40,000 were displaced. But the video was found to be around two years old and shot in Afghanistan or Pakistan.