The Uttar Pradesh Police have filed a chargesheet against Samajwadi Party MP Zia Ur Rehman Barq and 22 others in a case relating to the violence that erupted in Sambhal district in November, The Indian Express reported on Friday.

Barq has been accused of inciting the crowd by giving allegedly provocative speeches, said a statement issued by the police in Sambhal on Wednesday.

The statement said that “some anti-social elements, criminals and certain political people to claim political relevance incited violence at the Shahi Jama Masjid” on November 24.

The police claimed that they had found that allegedly inflammatory speeches and incitement to violence led to the clashes, which resulted in arson, the throwing of stones and damage to public and private property, The Indian Express reported.

“We have sent 92 people into judicial custody and are collecting evidence,” the newspaper quoted the statement as having said. “The investigation is still ongoing, and soon, others involved will be arrested.”

On November 24, violence broke out in Sambhal after a group of Muslims objected to a court-ordered survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid in Chandausi town.

A trial court had ordered the survey in a suit claiming that the mosque had been built in 1526 by Mughal ruler Babar on the site of the “centuries-old Shri Hari Har Temple...

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