Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party held demonstrations across UP to protest against the Mathura incident, and the Bahujan Samaj Party asked the Centre to take legal action against the state government
Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party held demonstrations across UP to protest against the Mathura incident, and the Bahujan Samaj Party asked the Centre to take legal action against the state government, the Akhilesh Yadav government on Monday transferred Mathura’s district magistrate Rajesh Kumar and SSP Rakesh Singh for dereliction of duty.
The action came four days after Mathura erupted into flames following clashes between the police and squatters belonging to the Swadhin Bharat Vidhik Satyagrah cult group at the Jawahar Bagh that left 29 dead, including the Mathura SP Mukul Dwivedi and an SHO. Sources said that the mounting Opposition attack on the state government had forced action against the two officials.
The BJP’s massive protests across UP — in Lucknow, Aligarh, Kanpur, Deoria, among others — highlighted the prevailing anarchy in the state and the deteriorating law and order situation with reference to the Mathura clashes. The party submitted memorandums to district magistrates, demanding a CBI inquiry into the clashes and a probe into the alleged involvement of Samajwadi leaders in the incident. In Lucknow, BJP workers, led by senior leader Shiv Pratap Shukla, tried to march to the chief minister’s residence but were stopped by the police near Christ Church School. The BJP protesters were involved in a mild scuffle with the cops while shouting slogans against the state government.
In a statement, BSP supreme Mayawati said, “It is almost impossible that Central and local intelligence units did not know of what was happening in Jawahar Bagh since the past two years and it is an even more serious issue if the intelligence gathering was so poor.”
The state government, in its report sent to the ministry of home affairs (MHA), has admitted that the police failed to assess the “strength” of SBVS members and that it was lack of coordination between district officials and the police that led to the tragic clashes.
Sources said that the report vehemently denies any political interference in dealing with the squatters, which could have made the police vulnerable to the attack — an allegation that is being levelled by Opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh.
The report further said that links of SBVS with Maoist groups was being suspected because of the quantity and quality of weapons recovered from the site.
Nikhil Chandra Shukla has been posted as the new district magistrate of Mathura and Bablu Kumar will be the new SSP. Outgoing SSP Rakesh Singh has been attached to the DGP office in Lucknow, while DM Rajesh Kumar has been waitlisted.
Commissioner Aligarh Chandra Kant, who reached Mathura on Sunday to start the inquiry, told reporters that he would submit his report in a fortnight.
