BHOPAL: BHOPAL: With the death of a loot accused tribal man in judicial custody turning into a major political issue, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan went into the damage control mode by removing the police superintendent of Khargone district on Sunday.
Confirming the development, the CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan said, “a judicial probe has already been ordered into the probe and four cops too suspended. Now the SP of Khargone district Shailendra Singh Chauhan is being removed for improper supervision in the entire matter.”
The CM also announced that the government will take care of the family of another tribal man Kanhaiyalal Bheel, who was killed by a group of men in Neemuch district on August 26, suspecting him to be a thief. “We’ll take care of Kanhaiyalal’s son and his education. Also, houses for Kanhaiyalal’s two brothers will be built and Rs 2 lakh each will be given to them as financial assistance.”
Sensing that the CM and the ruling BJP was on the back foot, the state Congress unimpressed by the development stuck to its demand of CBI probe into the September 7-8 intervening death of Bishan Bheel, along with Rs 1 crore compensation to the deceased family, a job to his dependents and lodging of a murder case against the cops involved in the matter.
Just a day before it, a Congress fact-finding team led by senior MLA and ex-minister Vijaylaxmi Sadho had gone to the deceased man’s village to meet the tribal’s kin. They alleged that he died due to police torture. The opposition party’s team also alleged cover-up by the police and government in the entire matter.
Four days back, a 40-year-old Bishan Bheel, arrested in connection with an August 24 loot case by cops of Bistan police station in Khargone district, had died just a few hours after he was admitted at the Khargone sub-jail.
While the Khargone district hospital doctors claimed that there were no signs of any torture on Bishan’s body and further claimed that the post mortem established that he died due to septicemia triggered shock, caused by a previous ulcerative infection. The suspended superintendent of the sub-jail claimed that before Bishan was taken into the jail on September 7, he already had torture wounds on his body, owing to which he was sent to the district hospital.
Enraged over the death, residents of Kharikundi village of Khargone district had attacked the Bistan police station on September 8. Later, acting in the matter, four cops of the Bistan police station were suspended and a judicial probe instituted.