LUCKNOW: The UP government has set up a three-member judicial panel to probe into the violence that rocked the western UP district of Sambhal on November 24. The commission headed by retired High Court judge Justice DK Arora with retired IAS officer Amit Mohan Prasad and former UP DGP AK Jain as members was set up late Thursday night.
The three-member commission has been mandated to ascertain whether the November 24 violence in Sambhal was a normal criminal activity or a planned conspiracy. The panel will submit its report in two months. According to a state government spokesperson, the panel will probe whether the violence was part of a larger conspiracy.
The order issued by additional chief secretary, Deepak Kumar, also said that the panel would probe the role of local police and the action taken by it to bring the situation under control. The panel would look into the reasons which triggered the violence and make suggestions to prevent repeat of such incidents, the order said.
The members of the panel have notable experience in their respective fields. Meanwhile, a 15-member delegation of Samajwadi Party (SP) is expected to go to Sambhal on Saturday to gather information about the violence that broke out on November 24.
SP state president Shyam Lal Pal said on Friday that following the instructions of party chief Akhilesh Yadav, a party delegation would go to Sambhal on Saturday.
After taking detailed information about the violence that took place there, the team would submit its report to the party chief, he said.
As per a post on X by SP state chief Pal, the delegation would include the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Mata Prasad Pandey, Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Lal Bihari Yadav, SP state president Shyamlal Pal, MPs Ziaur Rahman Barq, Harendra Malik, Ruchi Veera, Iqra Hasan and Neeraj Maurya, MLAs Kamal Akhtar, Ravidas Mehrotra, Nawab Iqbal Mahmood and Pinky Singh Yadav.
The situation in Sambhal had been tense since the first survey of the city’s Jama Masjid was conducted on November 19 on the orders of a local court. The petitioner had claimed that Jama Masjid stood on a previous Harihar temple.
Earlier, the Samajwadi Party (SP) had postponed the proposed visit of its delegation after getting assurance from the Director General of Police of a fair investigation into the violence.
On the other hand, Congress state president Ajay Rai claimed that a Congress delegation would go to the strife-torn district on December 2.