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HJC chief Kuldeep Bishnoi and 23 others acquitted in 2010 rioting case
A local court on Friday acquitted Haryana Janhit Congress(HJC) supremo Kuldeep Bishnoi and 23 others in a 2010 rioting case.
A local court on Friday acquitted Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) supremo Kuldeep Bishnoi and 23 others in a 2010 rioting case.
Bishnoi, along with former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal and his party workers, was booked for rioting, assaulting and preventing government of ficials from discharging their duty during the party’s rally at the Sector-25 ground in March 2010.
During the protest against the then Congress government in Haryana, the party workers and the local police had entered into a clash. A total of 26 people were booked on March 5, 2010, under various sections of Indian Penal Code, including attempt to murder, which were later dropped in February 2014.
Bhajan Lal died during the trial, while one of the accused, Balkar Singh, was declared proclaimed offender. Those acquitted include Kuldeep Bishnoi, Dharam Pal Malik (for mer MP of Congress), Haryana Congress leader and party’s state spokesman Ran Singh Maan, Dharam Pal, Kamal Kumar, Wazir, Rajendra Yadav, Karandeep, Bhawani Sharma, Kuldeep Singh, Hanuman, Dhanpat, Bhagwan Sharma, Satbir Singh, Balwant Singh, Ram Pal, Vinod Kumar, Sunil, Hanuman Bishnoi, Rajendar, Ram Diya, Gaurav, Bhartu Ram and Dinesh Gaur.
Their family members and friends were seen celebrating and exchanging greetings outside the court.
Commenting on the acquittal, defence counsel Sunil Narang said, “The prosecution could not specify the role of each accused, as the police failed to identify the roles of each accused.
“There was no evidence that who had damaged vehicles or who had broken barriers. Moreover, action should have been against the cops who had lathicharged the peaceful protesters. The private vehicles of Bishnoi and his party workers were damaged by the UT Police.”
Earlier in July 2014, Bishnoi and his party workers were chargesheeted under sections 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 147/148 (rioting or enticing crowd for riots) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC respectively.
Later, on May 20 last year, the court had also framed charges under Section 3 of the Damage to Public Property Act against them.
Backdrop
Party president Kuldeep Bishnoi, along with his hundreds of HJC workers, was lathicharged by the UT police at the Sector-25 rally ground on March 5, 2010, leaving around 100 injured, including 34 cops. Water cannons, batons and teargas shells were used to disperse the protesters. The police had alleged Bishnoi and his party workers attacked them.
