Mandsaur firing victim arrested for ‘drug smuggling’

The youth was arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and produced before a magistrate which sent him to two-day police remand, police said. They added a second man, Shyam Prajapati (48), who had allegedly given the contraband to Ishwarsingh, was picked up for questioning on Sunday.

In June last year, five people were killed and several others injured when police fired on farmers, who were protesting seeking loan waiver and fair price for their produce. The Madhya Pradesh government and the state police had then blamed drug peddlers and anti-social elements for triggering the violence. Police had also claimed that one of the protesters, Kanhaiyyalal Patidar, who had died in the firing, faced several cases under the NDPS Act.

The justice (retd) J K Jain Committee, which recently submitted a report on the issue to the state government, mentioned that anti-social elements had seized control of the Mandsaur protests in absence of leaders.

Sub-divisional police officer (Malhargarh), Dheeraj Babbar confirmed Ishwarsingh had received a bullet injury in the police firing last year. He also received Rs 5 lakh as compensation — in two installments — from the state government, Inspector Awanish Shrivastava of Narayangarh Police Station said, adding the youth was notorious for smuggling contraband, but no case had been registered against him before he was injured in the firing last year.