Area SP Transferred as Kasganj Violence Comes Under Control

Piyush Srivastava was appointed as new Kasganj SP as Sunil Kumar Singh was sent to Police Training School in Meerut

Following communal violence in western Uttar Pradesh's Kasganj, the Yogi Adityanath government on Monday, 29 January, transferred the area Superintendent of Police Sunil Kumar Singh to Police Training School in Meerut, officials said.

Piyush Srivastava was appointed as the new Kasganj SP. 

Kasganj witnessed communal violence last week and at least three shops, two buses and a car were torched after a youth was killed in clashes that followed stone-pelting by a mob at a motorcycle rally celebrating Republic Day.

Situation Returning To Normalcy, Says Govt

Asked about the situation in Kasganj, UP government spokesman and senior cabinet minister Sidharth Nath Singh said he has seen reports that shops are opening now.

"The situation is returning to normal, which is a good sign," he added.

The UP Police said drone cameras had been deployed for aerial surveillance and described the situation as improving.

UP BJP Chief Mahendra Nath Pandey, while defending the government, also said that the situation was under control.

“The Yogi government is working with responsibility. The incident was unfortunate, Uttar Pradesh is a large state. Still, four main accused were arrested within 48 hours. Other miscreants were also arrested. The situation is now under control,” said Pandey.

Explosives were found during house-to-house searches, following which the state police chief said the stringent National Security Act (NSA) would be invoked against culprits.

Under the NSA, a person can be detained without bail or trial and authorities need not disclose grounds of detention if they believe the detainee can act in a way that poses a threat to the security of the state/country or the maintenance of public order.

Incident a Blot on UP’s Reputation: Governor

Uttar Pradesh Govenor Ram Naik on Monday termed the Kasganj communal clash as a "blot" on the state and asked the government to initiate measures to ensure such incidents did not recur.

The governor noted that such an incident had occurred in the state for the first time in the last 9-10 months and described it as "shameful".

Whatever happened in Kasganj was not good. The incident there is a ‘kalank’ (blot) for UP. The government is probing the incident. It should initiate effective measures to ensure that such incidents are not repeated

Ram Naik, Uttar Pradesh Govenor

(With inputs from ANI and PTI)