Muzaffarnagar riots: Clean chit to UP government; Sahai commission blames local officials

The report of one-man inquiry commission on the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots has given a clean chit to the Akhilesh Yadav government of Uttar Pradesh, as per a media report.

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Delhi: The report of one-man inquiry commission headed by Justice (Retired) Vishnu Sahai on the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots has given a clean chit to the Akhilesh Yadav government of Uttar Pradesh, as per a media report.

The report has blamed the local police and officials for misjudging and mishandling the situation and has held Subhash Chandra Dubey, then Senior Superintendent of Police, Muzzafarnagar, and the local intelligence Inspector Prabal Pratap Singh directly responsible for the riots, as per NDTV.

Notably, the report has added that no further action can be taken against BJP MLA Sangeet Som as his role is being investigated by the police.

Som had been alleged to have uploaded a fake video on Youtube. He had been arrested and later given bail.

The website quoted the report as saying - "No further action by the government can be initiated against him."

Further Sahai report says that no one can be directly held responsible for the hate speeches and at the same time questions the role of the then District Magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma.

Going further, the report says that as regards the Maha Panchayat held in August 30, 2013, a case against politicians Kadir Rana, Noor Salim Rana, Rashid Siddiqui, Ehsan Qureshi and others had been registered.

Thus, no further action can be taken, it added.

The 700-page report was tabled in the state Assembly today.

More than 60 people had died and over 40,000 displaced in the riots that broke out in Muzaffarnagar and adjoining districts two years ago.

The Justice Sahai commission was formed to look into administrative lapses in controlling the violence and role played by media as well as politicians in flaring up the riots.

The state government had constituted the commission headed by the retired judge of Allahabad High Court on September 9, 2013, days after riots had taken place in Muzaffarnagar.

While the commission was initially asked to submit its report in two months, it was later given several extensions.

The state government had also formed a Special Investigating Team (SIT) on September 24, 2013.

In the past two years, a total of 567 cases related to Muzaffarnagar riots had been lodged.

The SIT has already submitted its investigation report in all the cases barring nine that are still pending.

Meanwhile, the Opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh today blamed the Akhilesh Yadav government for the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.

BJP rejected the Sahai Commission report as "incomplete" and demanded a CBI inquiry into the riots.

BJP legislature party leader Suresh Khanna said, "The inquiry report is a mix of of several semi-truths. It is one-sided and does not highlight the real culprits, reasons, causes of provocation and how it spread," as per PTI.

"The SP government shifted the blame onto BJP and our seven senior leaders were detained without any reason. The real picture would have emerged if the commission had probed the incident thoroughly," he said in a statement.

The government failed to take prompt action and the intelligence system failed, he said, adding the situation got out of control due to "ministers' intervention".

Congress' Rita Bahuguna Joshi said, "The report is blaming the Centre that we didn't give intelligence (inputs). Our home minister at that time had again and again said we provided information. The UP government cannot run away from its responsibilty."

BSP's Sudhindra Bhadoria said the riots are the most "unfortunate" incident after Independence. "The CM is responsible for this...Since it happened under Akhilesh Yadav," he said.

Senior SP leader Azam Khan, however, sought to put the blame at the media's door, saying it "over-exaggerated" the incident.

"In America, you can't show dead bodies and bloodshed," he said

(With Agency inputs)