Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath seems to have made an attempt to influence the hate case pending against him in the Allahabad High Court as the state government withdrew over 20,000 ‘politically motivated’ cases filed by the government at various stages in different times.

The announcement in this regard was made by the Chief Minister in the state Assembly on Thursday and by evening, a Bill was tabled which said cases registered under Section 107 CrPC and Section 109 CrPC in the courts would be withdrawn. Both the sections deal with breach in peace.

Once Vidhan Sabha passes this, over 20,000 cases pending in various courts will be withdrawn in one go. This government decision is expected to get support from all political parties as almost all the legislators have cases, which they claim as politically motivated, pending against them.

The intention of the government comes under cloud as the Yogi Adityanath government, in its cabinet meeting of December 5, 2017, had taken the decision to withdraw these cases but the decision was kept under the wraps whereas the decision to bring an Act against organised crime in the lines of MCOCA was publicised.

This sudden decision of the government has given rise to speculations as to whether this decision is a way to influence the hate case pending against Yogi Adityanath in Allahabad High Court which, the Chief Minister has been saying, is politically motivated.

The case dates back to 2007 when Yogi was charged with delivering a hate speech against members of a particular community. In that case, Yogi has been named as an accused. Incidentally, governments – both Samajwadi party and present BJP – have refused to grant sanction to prosecute the accused, including prime accused Yogi Adityanath.

The court has asked police to submit all case diaries and original police and government records of the incident, which led to communal riots in Gorakhpur in 2007.

Legal experts say that government decision to withdraw cases against political leaders may influence the Yogi case too. “This case is different as the FIR in this hate case was filed not by government but by Parvez, a resident of Gorakhpur. But the government can take a stand that this is a political case and Yogi was not directly involved with this,” Manohar K Singh, a senior advocate in Lucknow bench of Allahabad High court, said.

He said the picture would be clear only once the Bill is passed by the state legislature.

Besides Yogi, city mayor Anju Chaudhary and local MLA Radha Mohan Das Agrawal are also accused in this case.