Probe panel set up,party leaders booked

The UP government Monday set up a one-member inquiry commission besides booking a number of political leaders for the Muzaffarnagar violence. Retired judge Vishnu Kant Sahai’s commission will submit its report in two months,home secretary Kamal Saksena said.

IG (STF) STF Ashish Gupta said BJP MLAs Hukum Singh,Suresh Rana,Kunwar Bhartendu Singh and Sangeet Som,former MP Sohanveer Singh and former MLAs Ashok Kansal and Pradeep Baliyan have been booked for inciting people for violence. So have former Congress MP Harendra Mallik,BKU leaders Rakesh Tikait and Naresh Tikait,and RLD district president Ajit Rathi.

The IG said these leaders of the BJP,RLD and BKU had attended the mahapanchayat organised at Nagla Mandaur on September 7 to mourn the deaths of two youths at Kawal village on August 27. The leaders allegedly made inflammatory speeches that sparked the violence. About 20,000 people were returning from the mahapanchayat when they were attacked in rural areas of Muzaffarnagar,leading to 13 deaths.