By PTI
BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh government on Sunday announced the removal of Khargone district’s superintendent of police following the death of a 35-year-old tribal man in judicial custody. After the man’s death on September 7 following his arrest by Bistan police in Khargone in connection with a dacoity incident, four policemen and the district jail superintendent were suspended.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in a statement on Sunday said, “Recently, there was an incident in Bistan (Khargone district) in which a man died. We had suspended some police officials in this case. But, we have now decided to remove the SP (Shailendra Singh Chouhan) due to lack of supervision in the case.”
Chouhan also said a judicial probe is going on into the matter and further action will be taken on the basis of its outcome. “We take all such incidents very seriously,” the CM said. After the tribal, identified only as Bisan, died in the Khargone sub-jail, a group of over 100 enraged villagers attacked the Bistan police station on September 7, injuring three policemen.
Three days before he died, the man was arrested along with 11 others in a dacoity incident in Khairkundi village, located over 300 km from the state capital Bhopal, officials earlier said.
The state government had suspended the district jail superintendent and four police personnel, including a police sub-inspector, head constable and two constables, after the man’s death, saying that a fair judicial probe will be conducted into the matter.
The opposition Congress had demanded a CBI probe into the man’s death in judicial custody and also sought a compensation of Rs 1 crore for his family. Congress legislator Vijaylaxmi Sadho, who is heading the party’s own committee to conduct a probe into the matter, recently claimed that law and order has collapsed in the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh.
The man’s family members and some outfits had alleged that he had died due to brutality the police custody.
