The Samajwadi Party on Sunday backed the withdrawal of case against accused in Muzaffarnagar riots, saying it was "trying to give justice to the victims".
There is a possibility of an outbreak of epidemics in relief camps, where thousands of riot-hit victims have taken shelter following last month's communal violence in Muzaffarnagar, a team of doctors said after a survey of the areas.
A controversy has been sparked with the Bharatiya Janata Party deciding to felicitate its MLAs Sangeet Som and Suresh Rana, accused of inciting communal violence in Muzaffarnagar, at Narendra Modi's rally in Agra on Thursday.
As many as 37 ministers have been dropped from the government in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's third term and these include seven with cabinet rank -- prominent among them being Smriti Irani, Anurag Thakur and Narayan Rane.
Hounded by biting cold and urgings by senior district officials, as many as 483 riot-hit families camping in Loi village on Tuesday left for "safer places".
Amid a raging controversy over Rahul Gandhi's statement that Pakistani intelligence agencies had contacted Muslim youths in riot-hit Muzaffarnagar as part of their sinister designs, the Uttar Pradesh government on Friday denied having any such input from intelligence bureau.
A local court on Wednesday issued arrest warrants against 16 politicians of the the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, besides senior community leaders for allegedly inciting violence through inflammatory speeches in Muzaffarnagar.
Stoking controversy, Bharatiya Janata Party Lok Sabha candidate and one of the members of Legislative Assembly booked in Muzaffarnagar riots cases Hukum Singh said on Thursday he would oppose riot refugees from voting in his constituency Kairana as they were living "illegally" on government land.
Agitated over arrest of its MLA for his alleged role in Muzaffarnagar riots, Bahujan Samaj Party on Sunday lashed out at the ruling Samajwadi Party, accusing it of adopting a "pick and choose" approach by targeting political rivals and protecting its own leaders.
The Supreme Court on Monday imposed an interim stay on directives passed by the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments that eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route must display names of owners.
The communal clashes in Muzaffarnagar and adjoining areas claimed 49 lives and displaced over 40,000 people.
The Uttar Pradesh police are busy trying to cover up the gang rape of a helpless seven-year-old girl in a village of Muzaffarnagar district.
Majority of these constituencies are in Uttar Pradesh and the party that is on the third slot even as the counting is still underway on several seats is the Bahujan Samaj Party, a party neither with the National Democratic Alliance nor the opposition INDIA bloc.
After sitting over the warrant against legislators accused of inciting the Muzaffarnagar riots, the Akhilesh Yadav government finally got into the act and arrested Bhartiya Janata Party MLA Suresh Rana in Lucknow on Friday evening.
Taking exception to Uttar Pradesh government's proposed move to withdraw cases against Muslim leaders in Muzaffarnagar riots, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday asked Governor B L Joshi to press the government to withdraw all cases, including those lodged against its leaders, in connection with the violence.
In the couple of hours that you spend in the riot-hit city you find it is not the BJP that is asking for the votes of an excited section of Hindus, but it is the people who are clinging to Narendra Modi. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt reports on the sentiment on the ground in Muzaffarnagar, whose Hindu-Muslim fracture is a long way from being mended.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Himashu Bhatnagar also imposed a fine of Rs 2,12,000 on each of the seven accused -- Muzammil, Mujassim, Furkan, Nadeem, Janangir, Afzal and Ikbal -- for killing Gaurav and Sachin on August 27, 2013 and rioting.
A 23-year-old teacher was allegedly raped by a youth at a village in Muzaffarnagar which was videographed by two of his associates and all of them blackmailed her, police said.
Two clerics from Harayana arrested last month for their suspected links to the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, and another operative, had allegedly visited the Muzaffarnagar relief camps in Uttar Pradesh and sought to recruit men to their module, a television news channel reported on Tuesday.
While refraining from naming any one of them, he said, "I will disclose their names once the investigation is complete," he said.
A school teacher was arrested on Thursday for inciting communal hatred after she allegedly ordered a Muslim student to slap a Hindu classmate for not answering a question, the police said.
A young Dalit woman was allegedly thrown into a hot cauldron of a jaggery-making unit for protesting against molestation in the Budaun district, police said on Sunday.
"The kind of incident which happened yesterday (Wednesday) can definitely be attributed to lapses on part of the police due to which some people dared to do this (violence). We will take strong action," Devraj Nagar, state Director General of Police told media persons.
'The BJP is racing against its opponents by putting a chain on their legs.'
Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh, BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad and two BJP MPs were on Monday detained by the police after they attempted to enter UP to visit violence-hit Muzaffarnagar district.
The BSP has not entered into any alliances and has also been keen to shed the tag of being a 'B-team' of the BJP.
Thirty three family members of victims of recent riots in the district were given government jobs by the district authorities in Muzaffarnagar on Sunday.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi claimed in a rally in Indore that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence was trying to recruit disgruntled riot-affected youngsters to carry out its nefarious plans. Vicky Nanjappa finds out the truth behind his statement
The Hyderabad Lok Sabha member termed as "bogus" the list of 346 families who are alleged to have "fled" Kairana in Uttar Pradesh, adding that it suited the interests of both the BJP and the Samajwadi Party to create a "drama" over the issue.
The police on Monday said that 33 children have gone missing in Muzaffaranagar district since 2007 and only six of them have been found.
Several Muslim organisations on Wednesday demanded dismissal of Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh and imposition of President's rule in the state, saying Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has failed to contain communal violence in Muzaffarnagar and surrounding areas.
A video showing the incident involving school teacher, Tripta Tyagi, and the Class 2 boy in Muzaffarnagar has gone viral on social media eliciting strong words from several political parties.
The police on Friday arrested two persons for their alleged involvement in the Muzaffarnagar acid attack case in which four sisters, all of whom are teachers, were severely injured.
BJP heavyweights Smriti Irani, Arjun Munda, Ajay Mishra Teni and Kailash Chaudhary were among the 13 Union ministers who tasted defeat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, as stunning losses in three Hindi heartland states forced the BJP to rely on allies to form the government.
Ahsan Ullah Khan, the additional district and session judge of the MP-MLA court in Sonbhadra, also imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on Gond which would be used in the rape survivor's rehabilitation.
In comments that could stoke a controversy, Congress leader Rashid Alvi on Thursday said that communal riots in Muzaffarnagar have left Gujarat far behind.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Sunday asked the victims of Muzaffarnagar riots living in relief camps here to go back to their homes, saying those engineering communal riots want them to remain in the camps as such a situation "benefits" them.
The bail plea of Ali Mohammad would come up for hearing on June 27 in the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, his lawyer V K Tyagi said.
Sharat Pradhan secures exclusive access to the Justice Vishnu Sahai report and discovers it blames two BJP MLAs, a former BSP MP and his cohorts, local intelligence officials and the media for the horrific Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013, but attributes no blame to the Samajwadi Party government in the state.
One person was taken into custody on Wednesday in connection with the murder of a Bharatiya Janata Party leader in Muzaffarnagar, police said.