Didn’t know of Nuh clash till 3pm, says Haryana home minister Anil Vij

Haryana home minister Anil Vij on Friday said he was informed about Monday’s communal violence in Nuh only at 3pm, hours after clashes first erupted during a religious procession, adding that senior administration functionaries and police officers were also not aware of the incident when he first spoke to them.

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Earlier on Friday, the state administration transferred Nuh police superintendent Varun Singla, who was on leave when the clashes erupted, and posted him in Bhiwani district.

Vij said he was only informed about the violence by “a private person and not a government official”. “Till 3pm on that day, I didn’t know what was happening in Nuh. No police officer or any other government functionary informed me,” Vij told reporters. “I was told that the rampaging mobs had already vandalised a large number of establishments. No one had even informed me about this religious yatra which was attacked by the rioters,” he added.

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His statements underline the Haryana administration’s failure to address the violence at the source, and to keep the violence from spreading. Questions have earlier been asked of the speed of the state’s response, with violence spreading in under 24 hours from Nuh to Gurugram.

Vij said he alerted the state’s police officers, including the additional director general of police, or ADGP, (law and order) and then spoke to Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar. “Later in the day, we updated each other over the phone,” Vij said. “I also called up chief secretary Sanjeev Kaushal. When I called additional chief secretary (home) TVSN Prasad, he said that he was in Vaishno Devi,” Vij said.

Vij also said that the state’s CID chief Alok Mittal had not shared any intelligence input with the home department, even though “he reports to the CM”.

Meanwhile, according to an order, Narendra Bijarniya will replace Singla as Nuh police chief. Bijarniya was posted in Nuh till October 2021, and was then transferred to Jind and later Bhiwani.