New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government has filed an application seeking the withdrawal of charges against all the accused in the 2015 Dadri lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq. The application has cited inconsistencies in eyewitness accounts, lack of evidence of prior enmity, and the need to “restore social harmony”.

A group led by Vishal Rana—the son of local BJP leader Sanjay Rana, who does not hold any government post—was arrested for Akhlaq’s lynching in Dadri’s Bisahda village. The incident nearly a decade ago triggered nationwide outrage and massive protests, leading up to the arrests.

A 10 September letter written this year by the Gautam Buddh Nagar district magistrate—following a 26 August Uttar Pradesh government order directing the withdrawal of the case—says that the Governor had g

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