Only 56 riots in Uttar Pradesh till June: Ministry of Home Affairs

NEW DELHI: Union home ministry figures released on Wednesday claimed that there have been only 56 communal incidents in UP this year till June end, countering Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s claim that there have been "over 600 incidents of communal violence" in UP since BJP came to power.

Uttar Pradesh Additional Director General (Law and Order) Mukul Goel — the officer in charge of monitoring crime in Uttar Pradesh — also contradicted Gandhi’s claim when he told ET on phone from Lucknow that he had "no report or record" with him suggesting there have been 600 incidents of communal violence in UP in the last two months.

"We do not know from where this figure of 600-odd communal incidents had come about. Has any person been injured in all of these said 600 incidents? This is grossly exaggerated unless every small incident like a cycle collision and an altercation or a police diary entry has been counted as a communal incident. I think it is nobody’s case that more than 600 incidents like the Saharanpur violence have taken place in UP in the last two months."

MHA figures seem to back Goel. The figures on "communal incidents" presented in Parliament on Wednesday showed that such events showed a downward trend in UP this year.