Following violent clashes in Nuh district of Haryana, which also spilled over to neighbouring Gurugram, state Home Minister Anil Vij said he did not have information about any intelligence input on a possible build-up of tension in the wake of the religious procession that was attacked in Nuh district by mobs on July 31.
Six people, including two home guards and a cleric, died in the communal clashes that erupted in Nuh when a Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP)procession was attacked by mobs on Monday.
“I asked the ACS (additional chief secretary), Home, and the DGP. They also said they did not have any information,” Vij said on Friday in response to a question on the violence that erupted in Nuh.
“Do not know who had it (intelligence input) or not, I do not have any information about it. At least I did not know about it,” he added.
Referring to a TV channel sting of a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) inspector purportedly claiming that authorities had inputs about potential trouble during the VHP yatra in the Muslim-majority district, Vij said a video of the sting operation was going viral and it has to be investigated whom the inspector shared that intelligence with. The CID is under Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.
“If he had the information, then whom did he share it with,” the minister asked, adding that he had sent the video to the additional chief secretary of the home department for analysis.
The home minister also added that a total of 216 people have been arrested so far. At least 80 people have been taken into preventive detention in connection with the communal clashes. So far, 104 FIRs have been registered, he added.
“The police are working on the principle that the innocent should not be punished and the guilty should not be spared. That’s why action has to be taken after collecting solid evidence. Not a single culprit will be spared,” Vij said, as quoted by The Indian Express.
When asked about reports of role of some Pakistan-based social media accounts in inciting violence in Nuh and a vehicle with Punjab-registered number plate seen during the Nuh violence, the home minister said that these allegations are being probed, and conclusions will be shared after the investigation.
Vij had earlier said that the way bullets were fired from hillocks and stones were collected on rooftops of buildings indicated that the Nuh violence was “pre-planned”.
“People climbed hills next to the temples, had lathis in their hands and gathered at entry points, all this is not possible without a proper plan. Bullets were fire, Someone must have arranged these. Bullets were being fired. From where did weapons come …? All this is part of a plan,” Vij claimed on Friday.
“We are getting information that firing incidents were pre-planned…stones were collected on the roofs and people went to the hills and opened fire. We are collecting information and taking action against the people responsible,” the Haryana home minister claimed.
Meanwhile, Opposition parties have trained their guns against the BJP alleging that the communal violence was the result of the failure of the BJP-JJP government.