BHOPAL: Two weeks after five farmers were killed in police firing in Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh, the state government on Wednesday suspended three civil servants — one IAS officer and two IPS officers — for failing to maintain law and order in the violence-hit district on June 6 and 7.
Swatantra Kumar Singh, who was the Mandsaur district collector at that time, and OP Tripathi, who was the district police superintendent, were suspended along with Sai Krishna S Thota who was the city SP.
Earlier, Kumar Singh was shifted as a deputy secretary to Mantralaya while Tripathi was moved to the police headquarters in Bhopal. Sai Krishna S Thota was appointed as assistant commandant of the 8th Special Armed Force (SAF) Battalion of the state police. However, all the three officers were suspended on Wednesday evening.
The state government had already instituted a judicial probe into the death of the five farmers during the farmers' protest. The one-member judicial commission constituted by a retired High Court judge JK Jain has been given three months to submit the findings of the probe to the state government.
The farmers' deaths had sparked a massive violence across Mandsaur and other parts of the state on June 7.
In a related development, Mandsaur police on Tuesday arrested the state president of the Association of Panchayat Secretaries Dinesh Sharma for allegedly inciting violence during the farmers stir. Videos of Sharma leading a procession on the streets of Mandsaur had gone viral on social media, earlier this month.
Police sources said that Sharma has also been accused of sexually assaulting a policewoman.