A fast-track court in Gautam Budhha Nagar district’s Surajpur on Tuesday (December 23, 2025) rejected the Uttar Pradesh government’s plea to withdraw the prosecution case against the men accused of lynching Mohammad Akhlaq in 2015.Additional district judge Saurabh Dwivedi rejected the public prosecutor’s plea under Section 321 Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which sought to drop charges against the 14 accused.The court, marking the case as most important, issued directions for daily hearing of the case and protection of the evidence. The case will be heard next on January 6, 2026. The Dadri lynching: how events unfoldedIn October, the Uttar Pradesh government had pushed to withdraw the case against the accused. Additional district government counsel of Gautam Buddha Nagar, Bhag Singh Bhati, had filed the application in the local court following directions of the State government through a letter dated August 26, 2025. The lynching case dates back to September 28, 2015, when a crowd gathered outside Akhlaq’s house in Dadri after an alleged announcement from a village temple claimed that he had slaughtered a cow. Akhlaq and his son Danish were dragged out of their home and assaulted until they fell unconscious. The victim died at a Noida hospital.The local police filed a First Information Report (FIR) under Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder),147 (rioting), 148 (rioting with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 323 (assault), 504 (intentional insult to disturb peace), among others of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Jarcha police station.The same year, the police filed a chargesheet against 15 people, and named Vishal Rana, son of a local BJP leader, as the main accused who took the mob to Akhlaq’s house and assaulted the family.‘Reality check’The Congress welcomed the court’s ruling saying that the State government’s agenda has been defeated. “We welcome the court’s decision in the critical case with far-reaching consequences. In the matter by attempting to withdraw the case against the accused, the government pushed its communal agenda of emboldening elements involved in heinous crime like lynching, but the court gave the reality check to the government,” said senior Congress leader from the State Anil Yadav.“It was a dangerous trend in the making as the government has started pushing to withdraw case against the accused involved in creating a divide on religious lines and committing lynching,” he added.The Congress demanded adequate security for the judge who passed the order given the sensitivity of the matter. Published - December 23, 2025 05:31 pm IST