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Protests over acquittal in Rampur Tiraha case

Staff Correspondent

Tiwari says State to appeal against Muzaffarnagar court verdict Demonstrators blame Mulayam Singh Yadav for shielding accused

DEHRA DUN: The acquittal of the then District Magistrate, Superintendent of Police and three other officers of Muzaffarnagar in the Rampur Tiraha rape and murder of Uttarakhand activists' case by a lower court there sparked off a spate of demonstrations all over Uttaranchal on Thursday with people and political activists burning the effigies of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav, for shielding the accused by not granting permission to the CBI to prosecute them.

The demonstrators, including those from the ruling Congress, accused the Narayan Dutt Tiwari Government of not pursuing the case seriously.

" It is due to the callousness of the Tiwari Government and the anti- hill sentiments of Mulayam Singh Yadav that the perpetrators of unprecedented atrocities on peaceful Uttarakhand activists going to Delhi for a dharna on October 1 1994 have been acquitted despite the CBI gathering concrete evidence against them'', said Sushila Baluni, an Uttarakhand agitationist.

Meanwhile Mr Tiwari has asked the CBI and concerned officials to immediately file an appeal against the Muzaffarnagar court's decision as the issue was highly emotional for the people of Uttaranchal.

In Dehra Dun, a large number of Congress workers led by the party general secretary, Dhirendra Pratap, and city president, Lal Chand Sharma, raised slogans against Mr Yadav and burnt his effigy. Similar reports have come in from Mussoorie and Rishikesh.

The BJP general secretary, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, said the accused had been let off due to the sheer negligence of the Uttaranchal Government.

The Uttarakhand Kranti Dal leader, Kashi Singh Airy, felt that the President should direct the Uttar Pradesh Government to pave way for the prosecution of the officers responsible for the rape and murders of a large number of innocent Uttarakhand activists.

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Protests over acquittal in Rampur Tiraha case

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