The Shamli district administration, which is looking into allegations of a mass exodus of Hindu citizens from the Uttar Pradesh town of Kairana, on Sunday found that four people mentioned on the list provided by a Bharatiya Janata Party legislator died 20 years ago. The four teams formed by the district administration also found that 13 people mentioned on the list never left Kairana and 68 had migrated for reasons such as better business and job opportunities.

Last week, BJP MP and Muzaffarnagar riots accused Hukum Singh had claimed that a total of 346 families were forced to leave the town because of threats and extortion by “a particular community”, a veiled reference to Muslims in the area. On Sunday, BJP President Amit Shah brought up the so-called exodus when he spoke about the violence in Kairana and Mathura, at the party's national executive meeting in Allahabad.

Assistant Superintendent of Police Anil Kumar Jha said on Sunday, they had conducted a door-to-door verification of the 150 addresses mentioned on the list. They found that none of the families felt they were being threatened or extorted by Muslims. “Many of them had migrated eight or 10 years ago,” Jha said. Police also found that about 150 Muslim families had migrated from the city for different reasons, The Hindu reported.

Kairana will go to polls, along with the rest of the state, early next year.