BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh state government on Monday constituted a single-member commission headed by retired High Court judge J K Jain to enquire into the death of five farmers in Mandsaur district last Tuesday.
Curiously, the official statement announcing the probe does not mention police firing as the factor to be inquired into.
The government's statement merely announced a “probe into incident of death of five persons due to use of force over agitators in the violence during the agitation on June 6, 2017 in Mandsaur district.”
The avoidance of the phrase “death of five farmers in police firing” in the official statement is surprising, particularly as home minister Bhupendra Singh had on June 8 admitted that it was firing by the police only which killed the five farmers.
The commission has been given three months to complete the inquiry and submit its report to the state government. It will be headquartered at Indore.
According to the official statement issued by the state government, the judge will probe five points: the circumstances under which the incident took place; whether or not the force used by police was reasonable under the prevailing circumstances; whether the district and police administration took proper, timely and appropriate steps; and suggestions to stop a recurrence of such incidents in future.
Expressing shock, the Congress chief whip in the Lok Sabha, Jyotiraditya Scindia questioned why the words, “deaths of farmers in police firing” have not been mentioned.
Scindia demanded justice for all those who were killed or injured in the police firing in Mandsaur, besides lodging of cases against police personnel who were responsible for the firing which, he claimed six, not five, lives.
He also alleged that at least 10 farmers are missing since the June 6 firing and demanded the immediate release of 700 farmers who have been kept in custody either in jail or even at warehouses.