lucknow

Updated: Feb 06, 2018 12:50 IST

An independent fact-finding team has blamed RSS and like-minded organisations -- Sankalp Foundation and ABVP -- for the Kasganj riots.

The team, comprising retired IG, UP Police, SR Darapuri, senior advocate Assad Hayat Khan, senior journalist Amit Sengupta and some social activists, visited Kasganj on February 2 under the banner of ‘United Against Hate’.

The team members did not comment on the arrest of Saleem, who is accused of killing Chandan Gupta during the Kasganj riots on Republic Day.

They said police were harassing people of the minority community by only raiding their houses and arresting them. “The house of Saleem was ransacked by police when they went to catch him. The family of Saleem fled out of fear and the doors of Saleem’s house remained open for others to come and loot his property and belongings,” they alleged.

Addressing the media in Lucknow, Darapuri and ex-JNUSU president Mohit Pandey said , “One can see the imprint of RSS-engineered communal violence in Kasganj and the local media also played a role in inciting the violence by reporting incidents in an aggressive way. There was also media-induced rumour-mongering during the riots.”

Darapuri said after meeting Hindus and Muslims, station house officer of the area and local lawyers, they concluded that “the riots took place after the ‘Tiranga Yatra’ diverted its route and went through the minority-dominated area, where Muslims were holding a flag hoisting ceremony with the administration’s permission while the ‘Tiranga Yatra’ was taken out without permission. “

Pandey claimed that the situation in Kasganj was still tense. “Talking to locals, it was clear that this communal violence was not spontaneous but very carefully engineered,” he said.

The team accused the police of not registering complaints against Hindus. “The Muslims are living in fear,” the team members claimed and demanded an independent inquiry and tough action against the guilty.

‘United Against Hate’ was the banner given for this fact-finding team, said Pandey.