Muzaffarnagar (Uttar Pradesh): In a major relief to Samajwadi Party MLA Nahid Hasan, a special MP/MLA court acquitted him in a 2019 attempt to murder case due to lack of evidence. Special judge Surender Kumar acquitted Hasan and one Haider Ali on Friday on the grounds that the prosecution failed to prove the case against them, Hasan's counsel Rashid Ali Chauhan said on Saturday.
Chouhan said he had pleaded before the court in Kairana in Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district that the charges against the accused have not been proven. According to additional government counsel Satendra Dhiryan, police had registered a case against Hasan and others under sections 323,353,332,307 and 120b of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for an alleged attempt to murder and disrupt official work in the Jhinjhana police station area in Shamli on July 11, 2019.
A complaint was filed by a sub-divisional officer (SDO) of the UP Power Corporation, Nazim Ali, who alleged that Hasan and others had intercepted his vehicle and beat up an employee when they were on the way to a power substation in the Jhinjhana area in Shamli district. He had also alleged that Hasan had asked him to withdraw cases against some people regarding power theft, Dhiryan added. Hasan had contested the last year's assembly election from jail and won. He was later released from jail after being granted conditional bail by the Allahabad High Court in a Gangsters Act case on November 30.
Earlier, a special court in Kairana in Uttar Pradesh rejected the bail plea of Samajwadi Party MLA Nahid Hasan, arrested last week in a case under the stringent Gangsters Act. Hasan, who was arrested on January 15, has filed his nomination from the Kairana assembly constituency on a Samajwadi Party ticket for the February 10 election.
MP/MLA special court judge Subodh Singh said there was no case for bail and rejected Hasan's plea. Hasan's lawyer said they would move the high court soon seeking his bail. According to government lawyer Ashok Pundhir, the legislator was sent to 14-day judicial custody by a court in Kairana in Shamli district on January 15.
According to the police, forty people, including Hasan, were booked last year. While most of the accused were released on bail, Hasan had failed to surrender in court following which a non-bailable warrant was issued against him and he was arrested. Earlier, the police had invoked the stringent Gangsters Act against the 34-year-old MLA from Kairana.
Under attack over fielding candidates with a criminal background in Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday alleged that his party leaders have been framed in false cases by the ruling BJP. Yadav also described as BJP-sponsored a PIL which sought a direction from the Supreme Court to the Election Commission to de-register any political party violating the apex court's directions on making public information about their candidate's criminal record. The public interest litigation (PIL) cited the case of SP candidate Hasan.
(with Agency inputs)
