Muzaffarnagar riots: Commission summons top officials

MUZAFFARNAGAR: The one-man inquiry commission probing the Muzaffarnagar riots has summoned several top officials who were serving during the violence.

According to Justice (retd) Vishnu Sahai, Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police (Law and Order) Arun Kumar, then Commissioner of Saharanpur division Bhuvnesh Kumar and nine other senior officers have been asked to appear before it for recording their statements in the next sitting which is to be held from January 31 here.

Yesterday, the inquiry commission recorded statements of six persons including then Muzaffarnagar Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Manzil Saini, then Shamli District Magistrate (DM) P K Singh and then Muzaffarnagar Chief Development Officer (CDO) Ravindra Godbole.

The commission, after having recorded about 450 statements, including that of 30 senior officers such as then DM and SSP of Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Meerut and Saharanpur, returned to Lucknow today.

The one-member judicial inquiry commission of Justice (retd) Vishnu Sahai, former Judge of Allahabad High Court, was constituted by the Uttar Pradesh government in September 2013 to probe the Muzaffarnagar violence.

Over 60 persons were killed and more than 40,000 displaced in communal violence in Muzaffarnagar and adjoining areas in the violence in September, 2013.