Kairana row: BJP’s fact-finding team submits report to Uttar Pradesh governor, demands CBI inquiry
The team met nearly 200 people in the town and in its report, included details of those who allegedly continue to be extorted and others who migrated.
A fact-finding team of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday submitted its report on the alleged Hindu exodus from Uttar Pradesh’s Kairana town to Governor Ram Naik. The team, which visited the place on Wednesday, has demanded that the Central Bureau of Investigation look into the matter, claiming that people in Kairana feared for their lives and were planning to migrate to other regions as the administration did not provide them protection, The Indian Express reported.
The team met nearly 200 people at a guesthouse, and local residents had said their complaints of being extorted had not seen any action yet, the report said. It added that some were afraid to send their children to school, especially girls, and also perform Hindu rituals such as keertans.
Moreover, the team spoke to the relatives of three businessmen in Kairana, who alleged that they were killed in August 2014 by jailed gangsters Muqueem Kala and Furqan for not paying extortion money. They were assured compensation of Rs 5 lakh and a government job to two individuals from each family, but to no avail, according to the BJP’s report. It added that the gangsters were heading an extortion racket from jail with political protection.
The BJP squad was led by the party’s state Assembly leader Suresh Khanna, MPs, other MLAs and former deputy general of police Brij Lal. Their report includes details of individuals in the region who allegedly continue to be extorted and others who migrated for the same reason, abandoning their properties or having them grabbed illegally.
State BJP president Keshav Prasad Maurya said the party wants the migrated families to be rehabilitated, given compensation and assured security in a safe environment. This follows BJP MLA Sangeet Som’s ultimatum to the Uttar Pradesh government to bring back those who had left Kairana, failing which he said party workers will take to the streets. He postponed his rally to Kairana (pictured above) on Friday after authorities imposed Section 144 in Shamli district and sealed the borders to the town.