Police drop murder charge against 26 held in Rampur

“Of the 34 arrested accused, we have dropped the charges of murder, attempt to murder and dacoity against 26 people who were arrested in connection with the case lodged at Kotwali police station. During the investigation, we had added the charge of dacoity against them. We have decided to drop the stringent sections of IPC against these 26 people as no evidence was found against them,” Additional Superintendent of Police (Rampur) Arun Kumar Singh said.

Singh, who heads the Special Investigation Team investigating the cases related to the violence, said that all the 26 accused will, however, face other charges such as rioting, obstructing public servant from discharge of public functions, and voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty, among others. Police also invoked charges under Damage to Public Property Act against all the accused.

According to Singh, investigation against the remaining eight accused is still on and they will be charged on the basis of collected evidence.

Following the decision of the district police to drop serious charges against the 26 accused, who are in jail, a protest called by local clerics was called off on Wednesday.

“After the Friday prayers last week, we had decided to hold a protest in Rampur on Thursday against the police action of framing innocent people in the case. After coming to know that police have given a clean chit to 26 people lodged in the jail, we today decided to withdraw the protest,” Mufti Mehboob Ali, the head cleric of Rampur, said.

For the last one month, family members of the jailed accused have been meeting the District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police, demanding the withdrawal of the case against those arrested. Many of them have even submitted “evidence” before the DM and the SP to substantiate their claim that those arrested were innocent.