UP govt seeks details of cases against MLA Sangeet Som

The UP government has sought details of four cases against BJP legislator Sangeet Som, including the one related to a fake but inflammatory video uploaded on social media in which he has already been given a clean chit, a senior Muzaffarnagar district official said on Wednesday.

Additional District Magistrate Amit Singh said the state government has sought details of the cases on 13 points.

In April 2017, a Special Investigation Team probing the Muzaffarnagar riots cases gave Som a clean chit in the fake video case after the investigating officer filed a final report in a court, saying no evidence was found against the MLA from Sardhana constituency.

The SIT, through the Central Bureau of Investigation, had sought a report from US-based Facebook, Inc on the video that incited communal passions in Muzaffarnagar district in 2013.

But Facebook failed to provide details on the people who uploaded or liked the video, saying they maintain records for one year only, the SIT had said in its final report.

Som and more than 200 others who had "liked" the video were booked under various sections of the IPC and section 66 of the Information Technology Act on September 2, 2013.

The video, showing the killing of a youth, had triggered communal riots in Muzaffarnagar in which more than 60 people died and 40,000 were displaced.

But the video was found to be around two year old and shot in Afghanistan or Pakistan.