MEERUT: In the first major verdict pertaining to the 2013 anti-Muslim Muzaffarnagar riots cases, a Muzaffarnagar court has acquitted 10 people who had been charged with arson and murder of a 10-year-old boy and a 30-year-old woman in Lonk village of the district on September 8, 2013.
Upper district judge Arvind Kumar Upadhyaya let off all the accused for want of evidence, Times of India reported on Saturday.
Soon after the incident three years ago, the SIT probing the riots had found 10 persons responsible for the crime. A case was registered against them at the Phugana police station and the accused were named.
It may be added that some 107 people, including 66 Muslims and 41 Hindus, were killed in Uttar Pradesh violence in September 2013.
Suresh Rana, one of the main accused in the riots and BJP MLA from Thana Bhawan in Shamli district termed the verdict a lesson for the Samajwadi Party, especially before the 2017 UP assembly elections, at whose behest, he alleged, the UP administration had framed Hindus in the riots.
However, Rihana Adeeb, director, Astitva, an NGO working towards the rehabilitation of riot victims, said, "A woman was killed, a child was murdered. Arson also took place. This is a fact and no one can deny it. If these men did not commit the crime, someone did. I cannot challenge the court verdict, but we had a lot of faith in the legal system. This is utterly sad."