In a major relief to BJP leader Varun Gandhi, a Pilibhit court on Wednesday acquitted the young MP from the charge of hate speech in one of the two cases.
The court in Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit district acquitted Varun citing lack of evidence. The second case would come up for hearing on March 1.
The cases were registered at the Kotwali police station in March 2009.
The Pilibhit MP had allegedly made provocative remarks against a minority community while addressing poll rallies during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
Though the cases were registered against him under different sections of the IPC, the police failed to arrest him immediately. The MP later surrendered in the court and was jailed briefly in the case. He has strongly denied the charges against him in the matter.
The court decision of acquitting Gandhi surfaced at a time when another accused of hate speech Akbaruddin Owaisi faces numerous cases. Recently, the MIM MLA was released from the jail. Owaisi was arrested by police on January 8 for making a controversial speech against a particular community at Nirmal on December 22. He was also booked for delivering hate speech at Nizamabad on Dec 8.
FIR’s has been placed from 19 places including Bangalore, New Delhi and Ahmedabad.