Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Bhupendra Singh on Thursday said that the five casualties during farmers’ agitation in Mandsaur occurred during police firing.
“Five persons were killed in police firing,” Singh told PTI over phone.
Later, police said town inspector of Pipliamandi Anil Singh Thakur has been removed from field duties in connection with the firing on farmers.
The minister's remarks assume significance as the authorities had been claiming that the police had not fired during protests at Pipliamandi in Mandsaur district in which five farmers were killed two days ago.
Minutes after the incident, the then Mandsaur Collector S K Singh had told PTI that the police told him categorically that ‘neither did they fire nor did they have any orders to fire’.
Asked what provoked the police to fire, the home minister said it is being probe in the magisterial inquiry.
However, he said the situation was now peaceful in western Madhya Pradesh.
Seven cases were on Thursday lodged and 62 persons detained in connection with the farmers’ agitation in the violence-hit district, police said.
Superintendent of Police Om Prakash Tripathi, who has been transferred in the wake of the firing in the district that left five farmers dead, said the cases have been filed in connection with various incidents of violence.
Addressing a press conference along with the new Collector O P Srivastava, Tripathi said some persons have also been detained for heckling the previous Mandsaur Collector S K Singh in Berheda Pant area on Wednesday.
He said Town Inspector of Piplayamandi Anil Singh Thakur has been removed from field duties in connection with the firing on farmers.
Rakesh Choudhry has been transferred as the new town inspector.
Srivastava, who took charge on Thursday, said he is facing a ‘challenging situation’.
“I am trying to understand the situation,” he said.
Meanwhile, Divisional Commissioner M B Ojha said the situation in Mandsaur was ‘almost normal’ and curfew might be relaxed by evening on Thursday, a senior official said.
Internet services that had been suspended might also be restored, he said.
“For the last two or three days, farmers were stopping vehicles and setting them on fire. No such incident has been reported today. The situation is almost normal,” he said.
If the situation continued to be quiet, curfew, imposed in four police station areas, including Pipaliya Mandi where the firing took place, might be relaxed.
Vehicles that were burnt had been removed on Thursday morning from the highway and traffic had resumed.
Asked to comment on the post-mortem report of the five people who had been killed in firing on Tuesday, the official said the matter was under investigation.
Police and the Central Reserve Police Force were both at the spot. However, he didn't divulge any details.
The investigations, he indicated, revealed that the stone-pelters included boys between the ages of 16 and about 22. Some ‘anti-social elements’ had joined in.
In view of the volatile situation, the Centre had rushed 1,100 personnel of Rapid Action Force to the violence-hit state where the farmers have been agitating for loan waiver and better crop prices.
Two companies of RAF, comprising around 100 men each, have moved into Pipliamandi, the police said.
While two companies of RAF have been posted in the district’s Garoth area, another two have been deployed along the Mwoh-Neemuch Highway to prevent any untoward incidents, they said.
The situation is tense but under control, the police said.
Deputy Inspector General Ratlam Range Avinash Sharma is camping in Pipliamandi where farmers, agitating for the last seven days for loan waiver and better crop prices, defied prohibitory orders on Wednesday, beat up officials and policemen and resorted to violence and arson.
Senior police officials have also been deployed to oversee the law and order situation in all sub-divisions of Mandsaur district, the official said.
The situation in western Madhya Pradesh is posing a major challenge for Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and providing a rallying point for the opposition parties.
The Shivraj Chouhan government had sought to cool tempers by announcing certain measures, including a loan settlement scheme for those cultivators who had defaulted on repayment of farm loan borrowed by them earlier.
The scheme will cover around six lakh farmers, with accumulated dues of Rs 6,000 crore, according to the government.
IMAGE: Buses torched by agitated farmers. Photograph: PTI Photo
