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UP speaker appoints former high court judge to probe assembly violence

Uttar Pradesh Speaker Kesrinath Tripathi has appointed retired Allahabad high court judge Achal Behari Srivastava to inquire into the October 21 violence in the state assembly and allegations that outsiders voted on Chief Minister Kalyan Singh's trust motion in the House.

Justice Prem Shankar Gupta, the judge appointed earlier for this purpose, expressed his inability to conduct the probe on grounds of health.

Tripathi told reporters in Lucknow that the terms of reference of the inquiry committee included: How the incident started, who started the violence, whether one or more than one party had pre-planned the whole thing, whether any unauthorised person was present in the House, whether any person other than legislators voted in the lobby division and whether the proceedings of the House were conducted in accordance with the governor's directives.

The speaker said Justice Srivastava has been asked to submit his report within a month. Only after he received the report would he decide on the future course of action, Tripathi added.

Meanwhile, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has fixed November 24 for further hearing on the writ petition seeking to disqualify 13 Bahujan Samaj Party legislators of the UP assembly.

A division bench comprising Justice Brijesh Kumar and Justice A S Gill adjourned the hearing on the petition filed by former chief minister Mayawati.

Tripathi had yesterday rejected Mayawati's application for suspending the 13 BSP MLAs for violating the party whip on the trust vote. Twelve had voted in the BJP's favour while the other MLA abstained.

Umesh Chandra, Mayawati's counsel, told the court that in view of the changed circumstances, the writ petition will have to be amended, for which he was allowed time till Monday.

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