UP court refuses to take cognizance of Amit Shah chargesheet

The court refused to take cognizance of the chargesheet citing that police had not followed the provisions of 173[2] CrPc in which they did not try to arrest the accused before filing the chargesheet in court.

 

Shah was charged for allegedly seeking votes on the grounds of religion, race, caste and community.

 

He was charged under various sections of IPC, including 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth etc), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class) and 505 (false statement, rumour, etc circulated with intent to cause mutiny or offence against the public peace), and Section 123-3 of Representation of People Act (making an appeal to vote on the grounds of religion amounting to corrupt practice), reports said.

 

Triggering a controversy, Shah in April this year, had urged people to take their revenge by voting for his party in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

 

Addressing a rally at a riot-hit Jat village near Muzaffarnagar, Shah said, "If you want to take revenge, vote for the BJP."

 

"In today's time you can't take revenge with swords and arrows like it was done in the Mughal era. But today the people are constantly being denied justice ... they are not getting their rights. So, you press the right button (on the Electronic Voting Machine) and show people their right place," he said.

 

Earlier, a First Information Report (FIR) was lodged against him for the alleged hate speech.