Yogi shunts out DM & SP as probe indicts police in Sonbhadra killings

LUCKNOW: The UP government shunted out the district magistrate and superintendent of police, Sonbhadra, on Sunday, a day after the state-appointed probe committee's report on the July 17 Sonbhadra massacre indicted the police and administration for inaction despite having prior information about the flare-up and receiving desperate calls from under-attack Gond tribals .
While ordering action against 12 other government officials, CM Yogi Adityanath said FIRs would be registered against more officials for irregularities. Also, members of a cooperative society that controlled land at ground zero, Umbha, would be charged with land-grabbing.
Addressing a press conference at his residence, the CM said the disputed land in Umbha and Saphi villages would be transferred and registered in the name of the gram sabhas. He also announced the setting up of a Special Investigation team to probe how land was annexed by influential people since 1959. The SIT will submit a report within three months.
Yogi said departmental proceedings have been initiated against Sonbhadra district magistrate Ankit Kumar Agrawal and SP Salman Taj Patil for "one-sided action" against the villagers.
"Whosoever is still alive, government officer or citizens, and found involved in land-grabbing will face criminal cases," he said. He also ordered the lodging of criminal cases against two women - Asha Mishra, wife of former IAS officer Prabhat Kumar Mishra, and Vineeta Sharma, wife of retired IAS officer Bhanu Pratap Sharma - for getting society land registered in their names in a fraudulent manner in 1989. The bone of contention is 1,000 acres of gram sabha land that was taken over by Adarsh Cooperative Society in 1952; the society was set up by a Congress Rajya Sabha member from Bihar.
The Sonbhadra massacre in July happened during the tenure of the current BJP government, but the state government has shifted the blame to Congress and SP, stating that the controversial society that controlled disputed land was formed by a Congress leader, Maheshwar Prasad Narain, brother of former UP governor C P N Singh. Also, the prime accused, village pradhan Yagyadutt, is an aide to former SP MLA Ramesh Chand Dubey, he said.