Deeksha Sood –
The accused [Atiqur Rahman, Masoon Ahmed and Alam and Siddique Kappan] were arrested by the Maan police under the charges mentioned below while they were going to Hathras.
They were arrested under the apprehension of causing a breach of peace and were produced before a court of the sub-divisional magistrate which sent them to judicial custody.
The accused were booked under the UAPA. It was alleged that he and his co-passengers were trying to incite communal riots and disrupt social harmony in the wake of the Hathras gangrape-murder case.
The Mathura Court dropped proceedings on charges related to apprehension of breach of peace against them.
They were charged with apprehension of breach of peace while they were on their way to Hathras to meet the family of a Dalit woman who was allegedly raped and murdered last year.
The charges levelled against the accused under the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) were sections 151 (Arrest to prevent the commission of cognizable offences, 107 (Security for keeping the peace in other cases) and 116 (Inquiry as to the truth of information).
Ram Datt Ram, Sub Divisional Magistrate of Mant, dropped the proceedings against them, as the police fell short of completing the investigation against them within the prescribed period of six months as stipulated under section 116(6) of CrCP. This Section states-
“The inquiry under this section shall be completed within six months from the date of its commencement, and if such inquiry is not so completed, the proceedings under this Chapter shall, on the expiry of the said period, stand terminated unless, for special reasons to be recorded in writing, the Magistrate otherwise directs: Provided that where any person has been kept in detention pending such inquiry, the proceeding against that person, unless terminated earlier, shall stand terminated on the expiry of a period of six months of such detention.”