UP opposes in SC demand for handing over riot probe to CBI

Uttar Pradesh government today opposed in the Supreme Court a demand for handing over to CBI the investigation into the recent communal violence in Muzaffarnagar and adjoining districts of the state.
The state government told the court that it would be wrong to suggest that no effort was made to curb the violence and it employed all measures at its command to restore normalcy in the trouble-hit villages in 2013.
"We have done everything at our command and to the best of our ability in containing the riots. There was no complicity of state police in the riots," senior advocate U U Lalit told a bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam.

The bench, also comprising Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai and Justice Ranjan Gogoi, was hearing a batch of petitions seeking a CBI probe into the riots and issues of relief and rehabilitation measures.
The state government said probe into the cases of riots was moving properly and in some cases charge sheets have also been filed any move to shift the investigation to CBI will only hamper the probe done so far.
He said there was no discrimination in the grant of compensation and it was a wrong perception that victims from the minority community were favoured.
The court also asked the state government to respond why the compensation was limited to the victims from two districts of Muzaffarnagar and Shamli and not to those living in villages of adjoining districts like Baghpat.