Court issues NBW against U’khand education minister, 3 sitting MLAs in 2012 case

Nainital/Rudrapur: The court of additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM) of Kashipur has issued a non-bailable warrant against state education minister Arvind Pandey, three MLAs — Harbhajan Singh Cheema, Rajkumar Thukral, Adesh Chauhan — and 12 others in a case dating back to 2012. The ACJM also directed the police to ensure that all the accused are present in court on October 23.
ASP Rajesh Bhatt, the officer who has been tasked with presenting the legislators and ministers before the court, told TOI, “We have constituted a team as per the court’s order and have already conveyed to the minister and others to present themselves to the police so that they all can be taken to the court on the designated date,” Bhatt said.
To recall, police had booked Pandey and other BJP members in 2012 for blocking a national highway after a youth from a minority community had eloped with a girl from another community. The accused allegedly misbehaved with the police team which came to clear the stretch for traffic movements. Thereafter, the cops had to resort to baton charge.
All the accused have been charged under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that range from rioting to causing hurt and assaulting public servants. Police have also booked them under sections 153A (promoting disharmony, enmity or feelings of hatred between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth etc), and 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings).
Meanwhile, Pandey was granted bail by Rudrapur’s session court on Friday in a 2015 case.
Serving as an MLA back then, Pandey had allegedly assaulted Sher Singh Gwal, nayab tehsildar of Gadarpur. He was booked under the relevant IPC sections and the SC/ST Act in the case. Pandey and his supporters then blocked a national highway (NH) alleging that the then Congress government in the state was exploiting the case for political vendetta. He was again booked under sections 147 (rioting), 186 (voluntarily obstructing any public servant in the discharge of his public functions), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 7 (criminal act) of the IPC.
While Pandey had to serve a two-month jail term for the alleged assault, a bailable warrant was issued against him as he didn’t appear in the court on the dates when the case relating to blocking of the NH was listed. Pandey’s counsel, Charanjit Singh, told the court on Friday that his client could not appear in the court on earlier dates as he had to discharge his duties as a cabinet minister during the Covid-19 period. “He was granted bail and has been given a new date to appear before the court,” said Singh.