Congress seeks judicial probe into Delhi riots

New Delhi: The Congress on Monday demanded an independent, court-monitored judicial probe into the Delhi riots and sought immediate resignation of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and registration of cases against BJP leaders for alleged inflammatory speeches. Congress leader Mukul Wasnik said it seems that the Modi government has failed to follow 'Raj Dharma' and protect the lives of Delhi citizens as the police was found wanting in their duties.

He said the judicial inquiry should be monitored by a high court or Supreme Court judge that should ascertain what led to the violence and fix responsibility of officers found guilty of dereliction in duty.

A fact-finding committee of the Congress earlier in the day submitted a report on the Delhi violence to party chief Sonia Gandhi in which it flagged alleged failure of the central and Delhi governments in instilling confidence among the people. Gandhi had formed the committee to look into the violence in northeast Delhi.

The committee included Mukul Wasnik, Tariq Anwar, Sushmita Dev, Shaktisinh Gohil and Kumari Selja.

"There should be an independent judicial inquiry under the supervision of a Supreme Court or High Court judge that could independently look into the reasons that led to the violence and ascertain who were behind it," Wasnik said.

"We feel that Amit Shah as the Union Home Minister did not take enough measures to stop the violence in Delhi. We demand that Amit Shah resign immediately. We also demand that FIRs and cases be registered immediately against those BJP leaders who made inflammatory speeches and legal action initiated against them," he said. "It seems this government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has failed to follow 'Raj dharma' once again....Work needs to be done on a war footing and both central and Delhi governments should take steps in this regard," he said.