A special MP/MLA court on Tuesday imposed a two-year prison term in a 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots case on BJP MLA Vikram Saini and 11 other defendants.
They were found guilty of rioting and other offences by Special Judge Gopal Upadhyay, who also assessed each of them a punishment of ₹10,000.
Vikram Saini and 11 other defendants were punished under sections 147, 148, 336, 353, 504 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. Due to lack of evidence, the court released 15 additional defendants in the case.
After the two cousins, Sachin and Gaurav were allegedly killed by a mob of Muslims in August 2013, violence erupted in the district’s Kawaal hamlet. Saini and the other accused were blamed for being a part of the incident. The cousins were charged with murdering Shahnawaz Qureshi, another Muslim man, in the area.
According to the report, Saini, who was the village chief at the time, was charged with encouraging the crowd to participate in the cousins’ last rites. Following the killings in the village, there was communal unrest in the neighbourhood that left thousands of Muslim households homeless and 65 people dead. Additionally, there were numerous reports of sexual assault and torture in the districts of Shamli and Muzaffarnagar.
