Lucknow, 16 Aug: Almost a month after a Muzzafarnagar court acquitted BKU President Naresh Tikait in a 20-year-old murder case due to a lack of evidence, the district administration has advised the Uttar Pradesh government to file an appeal.
On July 17, this year, Additional District Sessions Judge Ashok Kumar freed Tikait, who was accused of murdering farmer activist Chaudhary Jagbir Singh in 2003, claiming that the prosecution had failed to establish its case.
According to Assistant Government Council Amit Kumar Tyagi, the district authorities have advised to the state government’s legal department, with a draught, to file an appeal in the Allahabad High Court against the local court’s ruling that acquitted Tikait.
Singh, the Rashtriya Kisan Morcha president, was allegedly shot dead on September 6, 2003, in Ahlawalpur village, Muzaffarnagar, within the jurisdiction of the Bhaurakalan police station.
On the basis of a complaint filed by Yograj Singh, the son of the murdered Rashtriya Kisan Morcha president, police filed a case against three people: Naresh Tikait, Bittu, and Praveen.
The case was then transferred to the Crime Branch-Crime Investigation Department (CB-CID). Tikait was given a clean chit by the CB-CID after its investigation, but the court called him in the matter. Bittu and Praveen, the other two defendants, died while the case was being heard. The only person on trial was Tikait.
