The Jharkhand High Court has granted relief to 18 BJP leaders, including BJP state President Babulal Marandi, Minister of State for Defence Sanjay Seth, Rajya Sabha MPs Pradeep Verma and Deepak Prakash, as well as Dhanbad MP Dulu Mahato.
A Bench led by Justice Anil Kumar Choudhary ordered the quashing of the FIR filed against these leaders in connection with a clash with police during the Yuva Aakrosh Rally in Ranchi in August last year.
The rally, organised by the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha on August 23, 2024, at Morabadi Ground in Ranchi, addressed issues such as unemployment, irregularities in government job examinations, delays in results, and the regularisation of contract workers.
Allegedly, after the rally, thousands of BJP workers attempted to breach barricades while marching toward the Chief Minister’s residence, leading to a violent clash with the police.
Following the incident, an FIR was lodged at Ranchi’s Lalpur police station against 51 named BJP leaders, including Babulal Marandi, former minister Arjun Munda, Minister of State for Defence Sanjay Seth, and then Leader of Opposition Amar Kumar Bauri, along with 12,000 unidentified individuals.
The charges included inciting riots, violating government orders, obstructing official duties, and causing harm to others.
The FIR claimed that despite repeated warnings and the imposition of prohibitory orders, BJP leaders and workers defied instructions, pelting stones at on-duty police officers and leaders on stage incited the crowd to attack.
Among those named in the FIR were seven MPs — B.D. Ram, Aditya Sahu, Deepak Prasad, Pradeep Verma, Vidyut Varan Mahto, Manish Jaiswal, and Dulu Mahato — and 17 MLAs, including Neelkanth Singh Munda, Randhir Singh, Neera Yadav, Ramchandra Chandravanshi, Aparna Sengupta, Kushwaha Shashi Bhushan Mehta, Pushpa Devi, Samari Lal, Kedar Hazra, Raj Sinha, Naveen Jaiswal, Narayan Das, Amit Mandal, Alok Chaurasia, and Kishun Kumar Das.
The 18 BJP leaders challenged the FIR in the Jharkhand High Court. After hearing the case, the court ruled in their favour, providing them with substantial relief.
