The Yogi Adityanath government has sought a report from the Sambhal police on the 1978 riots in the town that killed 20-odd people and allegedly forced scores of Hindus to migrate.

Government sources were silent on the reason for the directive and Sambhal superintendent of police Krishna Kumar denied any reinvestigation plans. Some Hindu groups have, however, been demanding the return of the temples, Hindu homes and plots that Muslims allegedly grabbed during the riots.

The administration has taken several actions in Sambhal unpalatable to Muslims since clashes during the survey of the town’s Shahi Jama Masjid on November 24 — to determine whether it was built over a temple — killed four minority youths.

It has reopened several closed temples, dug up purportedly sacred Hindu wells that were allegedly filled during riots, and accused mosques of electricity theft. It has also started police investigations against some local people and waqf authorities after they claimed ownership of plots near the Jama Masjid where a police station is
being built.

Recently, the state home department wrote to SP Kumar seeking within a week all the details of the communal clash of 1978. Kumar wrote to district magistrate Rajendra Pensiya on January 7 requesting him to form a team to collect the details.

Kumar told reporters that the home department had sought the report on a demand, made on December 17, by a BJP legislative council member, Sri Chandra Sharma.

A source in the home department said that information had been sought about the FIRs lodged at the time and about the identities of those arrested and those compensated for their losses. He said the government records show that more than two dozen people were killed and about 400 residents of two localities
migrated.

Several Hindu groups have over the past two months been claiming that a large number of Hindus were killed or forced to leave during the 1978 riots.

The claim was intensified after the local administration opened the gates of the Kartik Mahadev Mandir in Sambhal city, closed for 46 years, on November 24 – the day of the clashes outside the Jama Masjid.

“Some people are spreading rumours on social media that we are reinvestigating the 1978 riots in Sambhal town, which was part of Moradabad district at the time. But it isn’t true,” Kumar told reporters.

Sambhal was carved out of Moradabad as a separate district in 2011.

State Samajwadi Party spokesperson Ameeque Jamei said: “There was the Ram Naresh Yadav government, which had the support of the Jana Sangh (the BJP’s parent party), during the riots. Kalyan Singh and many other leaders of today’s BJP were ministers in the Yadav government. Why did they remain silent (if Hindus were driven out)?”

Yadav was a Janata Party chief minister but later joined the Congress. Kalyan, a BJP stalwart who was twice chief minister, passed away in 2021.

Jamei added: “Thereafter, the BJP formed its government in the state six times. Didn’t they see any need to collect the reports on the riots before?”

State BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said: “There’s a need to collect the details because a large number of families are still waiting for justice.”