By
Rajesh Pandey
Samajwadi Party MP from Sambhal, Ziaur Rahman Barq has filed a writ petition in the Allahabad High Court seeking a stay on his arrest in connection with the recent FIR lodged against him by the police relating to Sambhal violence. Along with this, he has also sought quashing of the said FIR registered against him.
A first information report (FIR) was registered against Samajwadi Party MP Ziaur Rahman Barq by the police in connection with November 24 violence during protests to oppose a court-ordered survey of a Mughal-era Shahi Jama Masjid in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal district.
Barq has been accused of instigating people that led to Sunday’s violence that killed four people and left dozens injured. The Police have alleged that his MP’s provocative speech was the reason behind the violence during the survey at Shahi Jama Masjid.
In the writ petition, the petitioner MP has pleaded innocence, saying that he was wrongly implicated in the matter. According to his counsel, he was not present at the place of the incident, yet he was named as accused in the FIR.
The case is likely to be taken up by the court soon.
A suit was filed before the civil judge, Sambhal claiming that a Harihar temple was once stood at the site, where Shahi Jama Masjid is situated. In the suit, he had sought a court-ordered survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal’s Kot Garvi area.
While entertaining the suit, the civil judge, Sambhal on November 20 directed an advocate survey of Shahi Jama Masjid of Sambhal.
However, on November 24, violence erupted in Sambhal district after a team led by an advocate commissioner surveyed the Mughal-era Jama Mosque on the orders of a local court, which resulted in the death of six persons.