12:00 pm: Samajwadi Party says they are willing to investigate Delhi Police claims
The Samajwadi Party says that the report if true shouldn't be politicised and says they will investigate any allegations that the Delhi Police forwards them.
"A criminal is a criminal. If there are criminals there then Delhi Police should take action, it should not be politicised," party MP and senior leader Naresh Aggarwal said.
"If the Delhi Police gives information to the UP government then we will definitely investigate the matter," he said.
How believable the Delhi Police's claims are, however, will only be known after a court of law hears the matter.
11:45 am: Give Rahul Gandhi credit, says Digvijaya Singh
Representational image. PTI
"If it is true that the LeT has elements in the Muzaffarnagar relief camps and are recruiting and indoctrinating people, then it supports what Rahul Gandhi said weeks back. He should be given credit for his statement," Singh told reporters.
11:30 am: BJP says Central government should clarify
"This is a serious security lapse. The UP government and home ministry should clarify on this issue," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar told ANI.
Incidentally, the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had mocked the Congress leader for his claim and said that the claim was one that was spread by an IPS official seeking a ticket from the party.
11:00 am: Delhi Police find Muzaffarnagar residents who verify Rahul Gandhi's claims
Nearly three months after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi courted controversy after claiming that Intelligence officers had told him about Pakistan's ISI trying to recruit angry Muslim youth from Muzaffarnagar, a group of men living in the riot-hit district's relief camps have reportedly told investigators that two imams had approached them to join a Lashkar-e-Toiba module.
The two clerics were arrested last month in Haryana. The men they approached reportedly turned witnesses and have given statements against them, according to The Indian Express.
The men, who recorded their statements in front of a magistrate in Patiala court in Delhi on Monday, are residents of relief camps in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli.
"They are believed to have told investigators that the two imams from Mewat -- Hafeez Rashidi and Shahid -- allegedly made numerous visits along with a senior LeT operative, currently on the run," according to the report.
The men have reportedly told investigators that the clerics tried to radicalise them and were offered a good lifestyle and money for their families in return.
The two imams are reportedly linked to top Lashkar man Javed Baluchi.
The relief camps of Muzaffarnagar have remained a deeply politicised issue with the state government now standing accused of being unable not only to handle the growing humanitarian crisis in the camps where about 4,000 people still live but also of playing politics on which villages the victims would return to. Over 60 people were killed in the Muzaffarnagar riots that broke out in August last year.
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