Non-bailable warrants issued against BJP MP Rita Bahuguna, others for evading court proceedings in 2015 stone-pelting incident

A special court on Saturday issued non-bailable warrants against BJP MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi and others for evading court proceedings in a case related to a 2015 incident during an agitation by the Congress when she was in the opposition party.

Special Judge P K Rai issued the warrant against Joshi, Congress leader Ajay Rai and four others who were chargesheeted in December 2015 in connection with the incident in which several policemen and administration officials were injured.

Joshi, who was in the Congress then, had joined the BJP in October 2016

The court lamented that despite a Supreme Court order for expeditious proceedings in the matter charges could not be framed as the accused were not appearing in the court.

Other accused, including Congress leader Raj Babbar, were granted exemption from appearance on Saturday by the court which instructed them to be present during the next hearing.

"It has been four years since the incident took place in 2015, but the charges could not be framed against the accused in the matter as some of them still have not appeared in the court and are evading the proceedings despite the fact that the Supreme Court has directed to decide the case in an expeditious manner," the court said.

It fixed February 1 as the next date of hearing in the matter.

The Congress had staged an agitation on August 17, 2015, at Laxman Mela ground in Lucknow. A crowd of about 5,000 party workers, all of a sudden, set out for Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Bhavan from the venue of the protest. When police and district administration officials tried to stop them near Sankalp Vatika, the workers allegedly started pelting stones at them.

Several people, as well as policemen and administration officials, were injured and the law and order was badly disturbed.

An FIR was lodged by sub-inspector Pyare Lal Prajapati on August 17, 2015, at Hazratganj police station in connection with the incident.

After investigation, police filed a charge sheet against the accused in the case on December 25, 2015, under several IPC offences and the Criminal Law Amendment Act.

Other accused in the case are Nirmal Khatri, Pradeep Mathur, K K Sharma, Rajeshpati Tripathi and Pradeep Aditya Jain.