Lucknow: In a major embarrassment for the Akhilesh government in Uttar Pradesh, a local court in Muzaffarnagar on Thursday returned the chargesheet filed by the UP police against BJP president Amit Shah on the grounds that it had ‘several technical lapses’.
The chargesheet was filed on Wednesday for an alleged hate speech made by Mr Shah.
Read: Muzaffarnagar police chargesheet BJP president Amit Shah for alleged hate speech
According to reports, the court returned the chargesheet with some adverse remarks over the manner in which it was filed by the UP police.
The additional chief judicial magistrate refused to take cognisance of the chargesheet as 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.
Read: Amit Shah in Muzaffarnagar: Vote for BJP to take revenge
Returning the charge sheet to remove errors, the court said police cannot file a chargesheet under Section 188 IPC as it should be filed as a private complaint by the concerned officer, who had imposed prohibitory orders which were violated.
A top police official said that they were studying the judge’s comment on the charge sheet and would take legal opinion in the matter.
The state BJP again reiterated its charge that the Akhilesh government was acting on its agenda of political vendetta and all actions were politically motivated.
Mr Shah was chargesheeted on Wednesday for a hate speech made by him during campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls.
