State advisory council sets aside NSA on BJP legislators

The National Security Act (NSA) slapped on two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators, Sangeet Som and Suresh Rana, was Thursday set aside by the state advisory council (SAC), Uttar Pradesh officials said.

The development came as a shot in the arm for the BJP, which has maintained all through, since the September Muzaffarnagar riots that its legislators were being framed to appease the Muslim community.

The decision is also set to embarrass the Akhilesh Yadav government.

A communique with regard to this decision was sent to the Muzaffarnagar district administration late at night. The SAC had earlier summoned senior superintendent of police (SSP) and the district magistrate of Muzaffarnagar for a hearing October. The SAC heard and examined the pleas put forth by the district administration for slapping the 'draconian' law on the legislators.

The state government had September slapped NSA on the two legislators, accusing them of fanning communal passions and inciting frenzy in Muzaffarnagar through their acts and speeches.

Both Rana and Som are currently in jail. The leaders have been maintaining they have done no wrong.

The two alleged the Samajwadi Party government was implicating them to appease a particular community and cover up their administrative failure which led to the riots that killed 63 and displaced more than 42,000 people.

While the district officials submitted some evidence on the alleged complicity of the two BJP leaders in the riots, a battery of lawyers defended the legislators and put forward proofs of their innocence.

The legislator duo had earlier demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the riots.

It was mandatory for the district administration to get the endorsement of SAC to keep the NSA tenable.

Welcoming the decision of the SAC to set aside the NSA on its legislators, state BJP president Laxmikant Bajpayi told IANS that the decision had proved the BJP right and its legislators innocent.

"This decision of the SAC is another nail in this anti-people government's coffin and I urge this government to resign on moral grounds now," he added.