Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary (Source: Wikimedia commons)The Yogi Adityanath government has ordered the withdrawal of a case in which state Panchayati Raj Minister Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary, BJP MLA Ritesh Kumar Gupta and others are accused of allegedly attacking police personnel who tried to disperse protesters holding an agitation against the Moradabad police for removing a loudspeaker from a temple in 2014.
The alleged role of Chaudhary and Moradabad MLA Gupta came to light during investigation.
“The withdrawal application has been moved to a local court of Moradabad. The court has fixed January 8 for hearing,” said government counsel Kaushal Gupta, adding that trial had begun.
Gupta said: “The police wrongly added my and Bhupendra Singh’s names in the case. We were not present at the spot. The case is politically motivated.” Defence counsel Sudhir Gupta said all accused were out on bail.
Tension prevailed at Akbarpur Chendi village in Moradabad after police removed a loudspeaker from a temple in June, 2014. Since then, locals had been staging protests to restore the loudspeaker, and the BJP also called for a mahapanchayat.