A court in Muzaffarnagar today refused to take cognisance of the charge sheet against BJP President Amit Shah in connection with the alleged hate speech made by him and returned it to the police.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Sunder Lal refused to take cognisance of the charge sheet as police had not followed the provisions of 173 [2] of CrPc. The court said the police did not try to arrest the accused before filing the charge sheet in court.

It also said, police did not seek warrant or attachment proceedings against the accused under the provisions laid down under 173 [2] of CrPc.

Returning the charge sheet to remove errors, the court said police cannot file a charge sheet under section 188 IPC as it should be filed as a private complaint by the concerned officer, who had imposed prohibitory orders which were violated.

Mr Shah was yesterday charge sheeted by the Uttar Pradesh police for his alleged hate speech during campaigning in the Lok Sabha elections.