New Delhi: A judicial panel appointed to probe 2013 Uttar Pradesh communal riots has held local leaders of two prominent political parties responsible for the carnage.

The Justice (retired) Vishnu Sahai Commission has also blamed the local police and civil administration for preventing the riots from fanning out to other areas.

More than 60 people were killed and nearly 50,000 were rendered homeless in riots that started in August end in Muzaffarnagar district of western Uttar Pradesh following an alleged eve-teasing incident.

Justice Sahai, a retired chief justice of Allahabad High Court, was handed over the responsibility to probe causes of the riots and alleged involvement of politicians and government officials by the chief minister Akhilesh Yadav-led Uttar Pradesh government. The one-man commission was set up under the Commission of Enquiry Act 1952 on September 9, 2013.

The Sahai Commission was initially given two months to finish work but was subsequently given seven extensions and took two years to complete its work.

The Commission recorded statements of 477 witnesses from the public and members of various political parties including 100 government officials.

Accompanied by Dilip Kumar, secretary of the commission, Justice Sahai handed over the voluminous 775-page report which is divided into six chapters to the Uttar Pradesh governor Ram Naik late Wednesday.

“The commission has handed over the first copy of the report. It will be sent to the state government for necessary action soon after I go through it. As a governor, it would not be appropriate for me to reveal what is there in the report,” Naik said.

Contents of the probe panel report, however, got leaked. According to media reports, the panel blamed local leaders of Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Samajwadi Party and now India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for inciting the clashes between the Hindu and Muslim communities for political gains.

It was widely alleged that the two parties in tandem stoked the communal fire to galvanise votes along communal lines with eye on 2014 general elections in which BJP reaped rich rewards in western Uttar Pradesh.

The commission is said to have also blamed police officers for their failure to prevent riots as it started from Muzaffarnagar and spiralled out to five adjoining districts.

The Uttar Pradesh police made several arrests and many accused are still in jail while cases against them are being tried in the court.

According to rules, the government has the right to refuse to table the report in the state assembly, only after which it can be made public.

The leaked report has reignited fresh round of allegations and counter-allegations with both Samajwadi Party and BJP leaders pointing fingers at each other and the rival Congress party reiterating that riots were fixed by the two parties for political gains.

Incidentally, Uttar Pradesh is due to elect its new state legislative assembly in January 2017 were Samajwadi Party and BJP are expected to get locked in a close contest.