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A controversy has been sparked with the Bharatiya Janata Party deciding to felicitate its MLAs Sangeet Som and Suresh Rana, accused of inciting communal violence in Muzaffarnagar, at Narendra Modi's rally in Agra on Thursday.
"These two MLAs were lodged in jail and NSA was slapped on them by the Samajwadi Party government. The party will be felicitating them at Modi's rally in Agra and tell the people the truth about Muzaffarnagar riots", BJP state spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said.
Alleging that the state government did not want the truth behind the riots to come out, Pathak said that one of the persons named in the case was made a state guest and provided Y security by the government.
"A person named in the riots is being meted out special treatment while BJP MLAs had to celebrate their festival (Diwali) in jail...This shows the real face of the government, which wanted to gain political mileage out of the sensitive issue", he said.
Som, who was arrested for his alleged role in inciting communal violence in Muzaffarnagar, was recently released on bail by a Deoband court. He was accused of uploading a fake video that played a role in provoking communal tension in Muzaffarnagar. He is also facing allegations of having made inflammatory speeches.
Rana was arrested from Lucknow on September 20 for his alleged role in fanning the communal violence which left 62 persons dead and rendered 40,000 homeless. He was later released on bail.
Pathak said extending the tenure of the judicial commission probing the Muzaffarnagar riots also raises questions on the functioning of the SP government as the report would now come after the Lok Sabha polls.
"The commission was given two months time for completing the probe.Now its tenure has been increased by another six months, which means the truth behind the riots will not come...The SP government did not want people to know the truth", he alleged.
Image: BJP MLAs Sangeet Som and Suresh Rana