The state cabinet in Madhya Pradesh, headed by CM Kamal Nath on Thursday, initialised the procedure to withdraw criminal cases registered against Congress workers, leaders and farmers in the last fifteen years.
Referring to these criminal cases as ‘politically motivated’, PC Sharma, minister for law and legislative affairs while speaking after the cabinet meeting in Bhopal on Thursday evening said, “We have decided to withdraw politically motivated cases slapped on thousands of people in Madhya Pradesh.”
“There are around 308 such cases pending in Bhopal alone. The total number of such cases in the state is in thousands and we would withdraw all these cases after due legal formalities,” Sharma added, confirming that one such case is pending on his name too.
He furthered that Jitu Patwari, minister for sports and youth welfare, who was also present at that occasion, too has a criminal case pending on his name.
The sports minister, while talking to reporters after the meeting, reiterated the state cabinet’s decision and said that a “proposal to develop a mechanism to withdraw such cases was approved by the Cabinet.”
The minister furthered that a committee would be formed in each district to examine such cases. “This committee will include the district collector, superintendent of police (SP) and the public prosecutor. The committee will submit a report about such cases to the home department, which will further take action in coordination with the law department,” he added.
Cases filed during the agitations launched by farmers and Dalits would also be scrutinised by this committee, the minister said.
Congress in its desperation to woo the voters during the assembly elections had promised in its election manifesto that they will withdraw all false criminal cases registered against farmers during the farmers’ agitations and political protests.
After the Congress government was formed in Madhya Pradesh, BSP supremo Mayawati had threatened to withdraw her support from the government unless cases registered against its members during the Bharat Bandh agitations in April were not withdrawn.
