Ballia (UP), Jun 16 (PTI) A court here on Friday acquitted 19 people, including Samajwadi Party leader and former Uttar Pradesh minister Narad Rai for lack of evidence in a 13-year-old case of obstructing traffic.

Rai was an MLA from Ballia from 2002 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2017.

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According to the prosecution, on April 2, 2010, Prabhakar Tiwari, then in charge of Ballia Kotwali police station, lodged a case against 19 people, including Rai, for allegedly obstructing traffic.

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It was alleged that the accused took out a procession at the district headquarters, raising slogans against the state government and blocking the road.

Advocate Tribhuvan Nath Yadav said that on Friday the court of Additional Judicial Magistrate Tapasya Tripathi after hearing the arguments of both sides, acquitted the 19 accused, including Rai, for lack of evidence.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)