2010 Bareilly riots case: Elusive cleric Tauqeer Raza’s court appearance deferred to April 1

This development came as the court of the district judge has taken cognizance of an application by another accused for transferring the case to another court. Raza was earlier supposed to be produced in court on March 19 (Tuesday).

The court of the additional district judge (ADJ), Bareilly, on Tuesday deferred till April 1 the date for appearance of elusive U.P. cleric and Ittehad-e-Millat Council (IMC) Maulana Tauqeer Raza, who is an accused in the 2010 Bareilly riots case.

Riots had erupted in Bareilly following a clash between two groups on March 2, 2010. Tauqeer Raza allegedly delivered an inflammatory speech while addressing a crowd after which a mob torched a police post and houses belonging to members of a community were set on fire. (FOR REPRESENTATION)

This development came as the court of the district judge has taken cognizance of an application by another accused for transferring the case to another court. Raza was earlier supposed to be produced in court on March 19 (Tuesday).

Bareilly additional district government counsel (ADGC) Digambar Patel confirmed that the date has been deferred as the original documents of the case have been summoned in the court of the district judge Vinod Kumar Dubey and March 21 has been fixed for the ruling on the transfer application of another accused Farooq.

He said the Fast Track Court-I of ADJ Ravi Kumar Diwakar, who had summoned Tauqeer Raza, deferred the date to April 1 and was likely to act further after considering the district judge’s ruling on the transfer application.

He further said Tauqeer Raza is elusive since the ADJ court had summoned him, taking suo motu cognizance of his alleged involvement in a 2010 riots case ,on March 5.

In his order, the ADJ had stated that the name of Tauqeer Raza, who allegedly instigated the riots, was earlier not included in the chargesheet despite having sufficient evidence and considered him as the mastermind of riots, the ADGC said.

He said the court also stated that the then officials of Bareilly did not act against the cleric and asked to send a copy of the decision to chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s officer for necessary action.

“Since then, the court has issued two warrants dated March 5 and March 11 asking to local police to produce him before the court and issued Non Bailable Warrant (NBW) on March 13 when he did not appear on two dates, directing strict orders to police officials to arrest him and produce him in the court on Tuesday (March 19),” said a Bareilly police official.

He said the police launched a major hunt after the court’s order and carried out raids in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Rajasthan and Hyderabad, but he could not be arrested.

Riots had erupted in Bareilly following a clash between two groups on March 2, 2010. Tauqeer Raza allegedly delivered an inflammatory speech while addressing a crowd after which a mob torched a police post and houses belonging to members of a community were set on fire. After the clash, curfew was imposed in the city for around 27 days.