Charge sheet filed against ex-BSP minister for announcing reward on Danish cartoonist

Uttar Pradesh Police have filed a charge sheet against former BSP Minister Yaqub Qureshi, 17 years after he offered a Rs 51 crore for the "beheading" of a cartoonist

Meerut: The Uttar Pradesh Police have filed a charge sheet against former BSP Minister Yaqub Qureshi, 17 years after he offered a Rs 51 crore for the “beheading” of a cartoonist from a Danish newspaper who had made caricatures of Prophet Muhammad in September 2005.

In 2006, Meerut-based Sunil Bharala, then local district president of BJP, had filed a complaint which led to police filing the chargesheet following government approval. Qureshi, a meat baron and Minister in the Mayawati-led government, had recently been released on bail after orders from the high court.

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He was previously charged under Gangsters Act for running an illegal slaughterhouse in Meerut and carried a reward of Rs 25,000 on his head. Circle Officer (Kotwali) Amit Kumar Rai, said: “Qureshi was charged under IPC sections 153A (enmity between different groups), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration), 505 (public mischief), 108A (abetment in Indian of offences outside India), 116 (abetment of offence punishable with imprisonment), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and section 7 of the Religious Institutions Act, for the announcement he made.”

About the late chargesheet, Meerut SSP, Rohit Singh Sajwan, said: “A case diary was sent to the government for its clearance to file a chargesheet. Later, the case diary could not be traced.”