Naming INLD MP in Jat stir report a bona fide mistake: Prakash Singh

Chandigarh, June 5: The Prakash Singh committee, which probed the violence during the Jat quota agitation, on Sunday, June 5 termed as a "bona fide mistake" the inclusion of INLD MP Dushyant Chautala's name for allegedly adding "fuel to the fire" during the stir.

Singh has urged the state government to make necessary corrections in all hard and soft copies of the report. "As former chairman of the committee, I take full responsibility for the mistake and convey my deepest regrets for the same to Dushyant Chautala, MP.

"I would like to assure him that there was absolutely no intention whatsoever to malign him or tarnish his reputation. It was a bona fide mistake of fact," Singh, who headed the committee, said in a letter to the state government.

The former UP DGP has claimed that the Haryana DGP had checked the original audio-video and it had been found that such a statement as carried in the report was made by another INLD leader Digvijay Chautala and not Dushyant Chautala.

"There was a mistake in conveying relevant information to the committee and the information was unfortunately carried in the report," he said.

After his name had figured in the report, Dushyant Chautala had accused Haryana government of trying to defame him and sought an apology from Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.

Chautala claimed that his name was put in the report without any evidence. "Prakash Singh Committee report mentioned that I addressed a mega second Jat Mahasabha (2015-16), whereas the truth is that neither I had attended any such Mahasabha nor delivered any speech," the Lok Sabha MP from Hisar had said earlier.

The Prakash Singh Comittee probe panel, in its 451-page report on violence during the Jat stir, which claimed 30 lives, has said "administrative paralysis" had gripped the state and the "highest functionaries in the government failed to show the kind of guidance, direction and control that is expected in a crisis of such proportions".

PTI