Muzaffarnagar riots report ‘politically motivated’, says BJP

New Delhi: BJP on Thursday rejected the judicial inquiry commission's report on Muzaffarnagar riots, saying its findings are "politically motivated" and meant to "cover up" the actions of Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh.

Though the contents of the one-man commission's report have not been made public, some media reports claimed several BJP leaders have been indicted. "We reject its findings. We had opposed the setting-up of commission, as we knew that it was an exercise to cover up the actions of SP and its senior leaders, which fuelled riots. This report is politically motivated and BJP leaders have been targeted at the behest of state government," BJP secretary Shrikant Sharma said.

Sharma said even the Supreme Court had pulled up the SP government for the August-September 2013 riots that left at least 60 dead and thousands displaced. He alleged the communal violence was "sponsored" by Samajwadi Party.

If the Akhilesh Yadav government had taken prompt action after a girl was allegedly molested, the matter would not have snowballed into such a conflagration, Sharma, who also heads BJP's media department, said. "It all happened due to the (SP) government's appeasement policies," he alleged.

Retired high court judge Justice Vishnu Sahay had submitted his report to Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik in a sealed cover yesterday. The commission, constituted on September 9, 2013 by the state government had been asked to submit its report in two months but was given several extensions.

The panel recorded the statements of more than 476 people, including 100 officials in connection with the riots that broke out after the alleged molestation incident on August 27, 2013.

It was also asked to look into administrative lapses, if any, in controlling the violence in Muzaffarnagar and surrounding districts.