Muzaffarnagar riots: The then SSP faces departmental probe

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh government in its eight-page Action taken Report (ATR) on the basis of enquiry report of one-man commission of former Allahabad High Court judge Vishnu Sahai on 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, which had wide reaching social and political ramifications, has agreed of the departmental action against the then district police chief.

The report ,which was tabled in Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Sunday along with ATR, has avoided fixing direct responsibility of the Akhilesh Yadav government’s failure in controlling the riots but blamed the local police and local intelligence for the shocking events in 2013.

The riots which lasted from 27.08.13 to 09.09.2013 had claimed more than sixty lives beside rendering homeless the thousands who had to be rehabilitated in the relief camps at that time. First time in the history of Western Uttar Pradesh, the Hindu Jats and Muslims had come face to face during the riots which had engulfed even adjoining districts of Saharanpur, Shamli, Baghpat and Merrut.

The ATR, sounding in sync with the Justice Sahai report, has informed the House about initiating the departmental probe afresh against the then senior superintendent of police Subhash Chandra Dube and the then Inspector of Local Intelligence Unit Prabal Pratap Singh for mishandling the situation and failing to provide the right intelligence input.

The report also put question marks on the conduct of various political leaders and castigated the social media and print media for exaggerating the reports which gave rise to unnecessary rumour mongering.

The report, in a way, absolved R M Srivastava,the then principal secretary,Home and Kaushal Kishore Sharma, the then DM of Muzaffarnagar of any laxity on their part.

Reacting to reports , the Congress asks about absence of the names of BJp leaders in the report while on the other hand the BJP spokesman Vijay Bahdur pathak alleged the report meant to cover up the failures of Akhilesh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh.