Khargone: Month After Ram Navami Violence, District Collector, SP Transferred

A month after communal clashes broke out in Madhya Pradesh's Khargone, the state administration has transferred the district collector, Superintendent of Police (SP) and Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP).

Photo by arrangement/The Quint. 

A month after communal clashes broke out in Madhya Pradesh's Khargone, the state administration has transferred the district collector, superintendent of [olice (SP), and area's additional superintendent of police (ASP).

The major reshuffle came late on Saturday, 14 May.

The collector, Anugraha P, has been transferred as an officer on special duty (OSD) at the Madhya Pradesh Bhawan in Delhi. Ratlam district collector Kumar Purshottam will replace Anugraha, reported news agency IANS.

Khargone SP Siddharth Chaudhary, who was injured during the communal clashes on the occasion Ram Navami procession and was on medical leave, has been transferred to the police headquarters in Bhopal and Satna SP Dharam Veer Singh has been transferred to Khargone.

Jhabua's SP Ashutosh Gupta has been appointed Satna SP and Deputy Commissioner of Police, Indore, Arvind Tiwari has been transferred to Gupta's earlier position, reported news agency PTI. Khargone ASP Neeraj Chaurasiya also has been transferred to police headquarters and Manish Khatri has been appointed in his place.

The Khargone district administration and the police were criticised for their failure to control the situation.

Background

On Sunday, 10 April, on the occasion of Ram Navami, a man was killed and 50 others were injured in the clash in Khargone, which erupted after a few people allegedly threw stones at a Ram Navami procession.

Over 55 "illegal structures" were demolished by the district administration while taking action against the alleged stone pelters and the accused.

Violence, stone pelting, and arson were reported from several states in India on that day.

Besides Khargone, reports of unrest and violence emerged Madhya Pradesh's Barwani, Gujarat, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Goa, Mumbai, and even Jawahar Lal Nehru University in Delhi, where several students were injured.

(With inputs from IANS, PTI.)