Muzaffarnagar riots, Nagpal issue brought shame to UP

Lucknow, Dec 26: Uttar Pradesh was in the news in 2013 mostly for the wrong reasons be it the Muzaffarnagar riots, the killing of police officer Zia-ul-Haq or the suspension of IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal.

The killing of Deputy Superintendent of Police Zia-ul-Haq along with two others in Balipur village in Pratapgarh district and a series of other incidents saw Opposition parties raising questions over Akhilesh Yadav's governance.

Haq's wife Parveen Azad accused controversial MLA and minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya of hatching the conspiracy after which the latter has to resign from the post. However, Raja Bhaiya was reinducted in the state cabinet after being given a clean chit by CBI.

The communal riots in Muzaffarnagar and adjoining areas, in which over 60 people were killed and thousands displaced, was another blot on the state government, which blamed BJP of triggering violence with two of its MLAs Sangeet Som and Suresh Rana arrested by police.

Muzaffarnagar riots witnessed deaths of more than 60 people

They were booked under National Security Act, which was later revoked by the court. The SP government, which claimed of fulfilling most of the promises made in its election manifesto in the one-and-a-half-year of its rule, took an initiative to withdraw cases against "innocent" Muslim youths accused in serials blasts in Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi.

The BJP accused it of following a policy of Muslim appeasement and the move was challenged in the court, which said that Centre's permission was required for criminal cases under central laws.

The final verdict on the PIL challenging the government's move is yet to come. The Nagpal issue haunted the state government for nearly four months. The 2009-batch IAS officer posted as sub-divisional magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar had clamped down on illegal mining and resolutely taken head-on the powerful sand mafia in Uttar Pradesh.

PTI