Taking a stern stance on the Rampur Tiraha incident in Muzaffarnagar during which seven Statehood activists were killed and more were injured and abused on October 2 in 1994, the High Court of Uttarakhand has directed the State Governments of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand to file replies in the court in a period of three weeks.
Further, the court made the Uttar Pradesh principal secretary of home a party in the case and asked what action had been taken against the police and administrative officials responsible for the incident. The court has also sought a report on the status of cases in various courts pertaining to the Rampur Tiraha incident.
It will be recalled that during the Statehood movement, a number of activists were travelling to Delhi in support of the demand for a separate State. The Uttar Pradesh Government had ordered that the activists be stopped from going to Delhi.
Acting on these orders, the police had stopped the activists at the Rampur Tiraha intersection in Muzaffarnagar on the night of October 1, 1994. When the Statehood activists protested at being stopped, the police opened fire on the protesters killing about half a dozen of them and injuring more. Some of the women protesters were also allegedly raped. The victims of this incident in Muzaffarnagar have not yet received justice. With no action being taken yet against those accused in this case, the high court of Uttarakhand took cognisance of the case and took up the matter as a public interest litigation.
It is stated in the petition that the accused had not been penalised with most of them being acquired by court and in some cases even their files could not be found.
The case was heard by the division bench of acting Chief Justice Rajiv Sharma and justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari. The matter is listed for hearing next on October 25.