Riot-accused BJP MLA Sanjeet Som to walk across west UP ‘to make people feel safe’

Bhartiya Janta Party MLA, Sangeet Singh Som (Express Archive)

BJP MLA from Sardhana and an accused in 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, Sangeet Singh Som, Wednesday announced to undertake a week-long “Paidal Nirbhay Yatra” across western UP to “instill confidence” among people who are not feeling safe due to the “communal atmosphere being created” by some parties.

The yatra will begin Friday from Meerut and cover Muzaffarnagar and other areas of west UP before culminating in Kairana town in Shamli. The BJP has alleged that hundreds of Hindu families have migrated out of Kairana following extortion threats and atrocities from “one particular community”.

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Som told The Indian Express that he just wants “to make people feel safe”. “I don’t know why people are creating a communal atmosphere. I want them to live peacefully. BJP is with them and won’t let anything wrong happen to anyone. I will walk from Meerut to Kairana on foot with thousands of my party workers.”

He warned the state government of rallies across UP if a “proper inquiry was not conducted”. Accused of making inflammatory speeches during the Muzaffarnagar riots, Som was booked under the National Security Act in September 2013.