Draft:2007 Gorakhpur riots

The 2007 Gorakhpur riots were an important set of events in the Eastern Uttar Pradesh, popularly known as Purvanchal.

The Beginning

The genesis of this event lay in the incidences that took place in Gorakhpur district during the last few days before the situation finally erupted in the shape of huge riots in and around Gorakhpur.

One such major precipitating event was the murder of a Hindu boy Raj Kumar Agrahari in the night of January 26, 2007. This led to communal tension, followed by iposition of Curfew under section 144 CrPC. On 27 January 2007 evening, a protest from Bhartiya Janata Party leaders of Gorakhpur, being led by the current Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath took place outside Gorakhpur railway station.

This protest led to massive riotous incidences, wherein Adityanath was also arrested and sent to Gorakhpur Jail, where he remained for 11 days.

In between, the riots spread in Gorakhpur district and various districts around it, including Maharajganj, Kushinagar and others.

This was followed by registration of large number of FIRs related with the various incidences of rioting and arson.

Pervez Parwaz Case

One Parvez Parwaz, a social activist and journalist from Gorakhpur presented a complaint before Gorakhpur Police, stating all the related facts in and around Gorakhpur district and sought registration of First Information Report against Yogi Adityanath, then Member of Parliament, Dr. Radha Mohan Dass Aggarwal, then Member of the Legislative Assembly, Dr. Y. D. Singh, then Member of the Legislative Council, Anju Chowdhary, then Mayor of Gorakhpur, Shiv Pratap Shukla, Minister of State and others from Hindu Yuva Vahini and BJP.

When the Police refused to register an FIR, he approached the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Gorakhpur for registration of FIR under section 156(3) CrPC. The CJM Gorakhpur refused to get the FIR register after which Parvez Parwaz approached the Allahabad High Court, which directed registration of FIR.

This case was transferred to Crime Branch- Criminal Investigation Department (CBCID), Uttar Pradesh.

Meanwhile, Anju Chaudhary, one of the accused in this case, moved Supreme Court of India. The Supreme Court dismissed the Petition thriygh its order dated 12 December 2012.

Subsequent Developments

The CBCID kept the case pending for years and in the meantime Parvez Parwaz filed a petition in Allahabad High Court seeking transfer of the Case to Central Bureau of Investigation.

CBCID finally concluded its investigation in 2015 where it charged Yogi Adityanath and others prima-facie guilty for offence under Section 143, 153, 153A, 295A read with Section 505 IPC and forwarded the same in April 2015 to the Home Department, Uttar Pradesh Government for according sanction for prosecution of the accused persons.

Meanwhile Adityanath became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh on 19 March 2017 and in May 2017, the Uttar Pradesh Government refused to grant sanction for Prosecution against Adityanath and others.

The High Court accepted the State Government decision through its order dated 22 February 2018.

Parvez Parwaz challenged this order in the Supreme Court of India, but got no relief.

In fact, he made another attempt before the Allahabad High Court, which even put a penalty of Rs. One lakh on him.

Till today, many of these 2007 Gorakhpur riot cases remain pending in various law courts and complete justice still eludes the victims.