NOIDA: The nomination of Yogesh Raj, who was briefly arrested for his alleged role in the 2018 mob violence in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr, has been rejected for the state Assembly elections, officials said Tuesday.
He had put forth his candidature as an independent candidate from the Syana Assembly seat in Bulandshahr district, according to local election officials.
The nomination papers had been filed under the name Yogesh Kumar but rejected during the scrutiny process on Monday over incomplete information, the officials said.
In the affidavit, the Class 12 pass has mentioned his age as 26 and also declared that there are two criminal cases against him in which verdict is awaited.
This included the 2018 mob violence episode for which he was arrested.
Police Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh and local resident Sumit had died of bullet injuries after the violence broke out in the Syana area of western UP's Bulandshahr district in December 2018.
The violence was triggered after cattle carcasses were found strewn outside Chingrawathi village.
Yogesh Raj was among 80 people, of which 27 were named and rest 'unknown', who were booked by police for their alleged role in the violence.
His name was eventually dropped from the charge sheet by a special investigation team formed to probe the matter.
Yogesh was the Bulandshahr unit convener of the Bajrang Dal at the time of the incident but is no longer its member, an office-bearer of the right-wing outfit had told PTI in May 2021 after he had won the local panchayat polls.
The Syana Assembly constituency goes to polls on February 10.
The election results will be out on March 10.
BJP's Devendra Singh Lodhi, the sitting MLA, will be once again contesting the polls from Syana.