Muzaffarnagar (UP), Apr 22 (PTI) A fast track court has acquitted 16 people due to lack of evidence in connection with the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots case.

Additional District Judge (Fast Track Court), Muzaffarnagar, Nishant Singla has acquitted all 16 people, saying that the prosecution failed to prove its story.

The judgment was delivered on April 18.

According to special government lawyer Narender Sharma, the SIT had filed chargesheets against 16 people — Nazar Mohd, Kasim, Zahir, Gyyur, Meerhasan, Khalid, Gulsher, Shamshad, Mustafa, Janmohammad, Asgar, Farrukh, Anwar, Jan Mohammad, Javed, Mohammad Ayyub — under various sections of the IPC, including 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder).

All the 16 accused are residents of the village Nagla Bajurg.

The prosecution had alleged that the accused had attacked several people on a tractor trolly with sharp-eged weapons and lathis in which Sohanvir Singh was killed and several others were injured.

Jogender Singh, son of deceased Sohanvir Singh, had registered a case at the Bhopa police station.

The 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots resulted in the deaths of over 60 people and displaced more than 40,000 in Muzaffarnagar and neighbouring areas in western UP during the communal clashes in August and September. PTI COR NAV MNK MNK