BJP MLA gets 14-day judicial custody for rioting

DEHRADUN: BJP MLA Rajkumar Thukral, the main accused in the 2011 riots in Rudrapur, was sent to the Haldwani jail for 14 days on Wednesday, following his surrender before a lower court in Rudrapur. The district court will hear his bail plea on Friday.
Thukral, who was on the run for more than three months now, appeared before the court of the chief judicial magistrate, and surrendered through his defence counsel, Diwaker Pandey.Although Pandey immediately moved a bail application for his client, the magistrate rejected it, ordering a 14-day judicial custody.
Thukral, who is accused of murder, attempt to murder, rioting, intimidation and vandalism during the 2011 communal riots, was declared an absconder by a lower court in November last year. “Following this, we even attached some of the MLA’s properties in Uddham Singh Nagar (USN). We were on the lookout for him,” said SSP, USN, Riddhim Aggarwal.
Meanwhile a high level house panel, comprising senior government leaders and the opposition, has already been asked by the state assembly Speaker, to reinvestigate the police case against Thukral and submit its final report within a month. The opposition BJP has accused the state government of “harassing” Thukral by falsely implicating him in the case.
A major communal frenzy in Rudrapur on October 2, 2011 killed four and injured sixty others after torn pages of a holy book were found outside a place of worship in the communally sensitive city.