India: Court orders arrest of BJP MLA for failing to turnup

 BJP MLA Vikram Saini

Muzaffarnagar, Jan 7 (PTI) A special court trying cases involving lawmakers here has ordered the arrest of BJP's Khatauli MLA Vikram Saini for his failure to appear before it in a case related to defiling a place of worship and triggering communal hatred during the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.

Issuing non-bailable warrant against Saini, Special Judge Ram Sudh Singh has directed police to arrest and produce him in the court by January 11.

The Muzaffarnagar police had booked Saini under sections 153 A and 295 of the Indian Penal Code respectively for promoting communal enmity and defiling a place of worship in Kawal village under Jansath police station on February 21, 2013 during communal riots in the district.

A former Kawal village Panchayat pradhan', Sani was elected to the Uttar Pradesh assembly in 2017.

He also faces another case of attempt to murder along with 27 others during the 2013 riot in the district.

In this attempt-to-murder case against him, Saini had appeared in the court in 2020.

He had been earlier arrested and released on bail in 2014 for his alleged role in the riots.