Sonia forms 5-member team to visit riot-affected areas in Delhi and submit detailed report

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday deputed a five-member team to visit the riot-affected areas in northeast Delhi and submit a report to her after which the delegation met with some of the victims of violence at city hospitals.

The delegation comprises All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Mukul Wasnik, AICC in-charge Delhi Shaktisinh Gohil, Haryana Congress chief Kumari Selja, former MP Tariq Anwar and Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev.

The Congress president has deputed a delegation of party leaders to visit the riot-affected areas in the national capital and asked them to assess the situation emanating from the mindless violence and its after effects, the party said in a statement.

The team has been asked to submit a "detailed report to the Congress president immediately", it said.

The Congress leaders who are part of the team held a meeting at the party headquarters here. Selja could not participate as she was in Haryana due to prior engagements, but will join the team soon.

Later, the delegation members visited Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital and another private hospital to meet people who were injured in the violence.

Sources said the leaders will visit the violence-hit areas over the next couple of days and then submit the report to the Congress chief soon.

A Congress delegation led by Sonia Gandhi on Thursday had urged President Ram Nath Kovind to call for his resignation and remind the Centre of its "raj dharma".

Reading out parts of the memorandum that the party submitted to the president, Gandhi had said both the Delhi government and the Centre remained "mute spectators" instead of trying to take remedial measures to control the situation.

The delegation had included former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel, P Chidambaram, K C Venugopal, Mallikarjuna Kharge, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Anand Sharma, A K Antony, Kumari Selja and Randeep Surjewala.

The death toll in the Delhi's communal violence has gone up to 42 now with four more fatalities being recorded on Friday, officials said.