HC refuses to give respite to CM Yogi in ‘hate speech’ case

Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, May 19

Trouble for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is far from over despite the state government refusing permission to take legal action against him in the 2007 hate speech case which had triggered communal violence in Gorakhpur.

The sword of Damocles continues to hang over the head of Yogi as the Allahabad High Court division bench of Justices Ramesh Sinha and Umesh Chandra Srivastava on May 11 has restrained the Gorakhpur court to pass any order on the final report submitted by the Crime Branch–Crime Investigation Department (CB-CID) before it on May 6 till the petition demanding a CBI probe in the hate speeches of CM Yogi is disposed of.

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The CB-CID final report was submitted before the Gorakhpur court on May 5 after the state government’s May 3 refusal to grant prosecution sanction to act against Yogi in the hate speech case.

The court directed to send a certified copy of the May 11 order to the District Judge Gorakhpur forthwith for its compliance. 

In another blow to Yogi the court has asked the chief secretary to furnish status reports till date during the next hearing on July 7 of all the pending 29 cases in this regard.

The court has specifically asked for detailed comparative charts of the 29 criminal cases, including the present case in the communal riots in Gorakhpur causing loss of life and property.

On January 27, 2007, Raj Kumar Agrahari was injured and later succumbed to his injuries when a clash broke out between two groups during a Muharram procession.

The then Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath had reportedly delivered a speech to take revenge for the death which had caused violence to spread in many more districts.

Far from giving any respite to CM Yogi during the next hearing the court will consider the prayer made by the petitioner to further examine the validity of the refusal of grant of sanction of the accused (CM Yogi) in the present case.

The court has allowed petitioners’ counsel SFA Naqvi’s plea to challenge the state government’s order refusing to the grant of sanction for prosecuting Yogi Adityanath.

The counsel had argued that the state government’s refusal to take action against Yogi had violated a cardinal principle of law as an accused can’t be the judge of his own case.

The petition under consideration had been filed by Parvez Parwaz along with advocate Asad Hayat demanding transfer of the case to an independent investigating agency like the CBI.