New Delhi: Six days after a police inspector and youth were killed in mob violence over rumours of cow slaughter in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr, the top police officer in the district was shunted out.
Senior Superintendent of Police Krishna Bahadur Singh has been transferred to Lucknow and he will be replaced by the Sitapur Prabhakar Chaudhary. Two other police officers were also transferred in connection with the mob violence.
The action comes after chief minister Yogi Adityanath was briefed on the key findings of the ADG report on Friday night.
Circle officer Shama SP Singh and Chingrawathi police outpost incharge Suresh Kumar have been removed on prima facie charges of negligence in assessing and handling the situation on December 3, sources told to the wire odisha..
The move comes despite the Additional Director General (Intelligence) SB Shirodkar saying in his report that it was not a failure of police, but an intelligence failure.
He had asked why there was no prior warning about a possible conspiracy to stage a riot after spreading rumours of cow slaughter. “Though force was sent on spot including 25 men of PAC, more force should have been sent during the crucial hours between 9 am and 1 pm,” he stated in his report.
The top cop said that the biggest sign of the violence being a pre-planned conspiracy was that the cow carcass found at the spot, which was the trigger, was 48 hours old and was most likely not slaughtered in Sayana village as claimed by Bajrang Dal’s district head Yogesh Raj, who had in his police complaint stated that he witnessed the cow being killed.
A violent clash between the police and villagers of Mahaw after a mob turned violent in an alleged case of illegal slaughtering of cattle, resulted in the death of station house officer (SHO) Subodh Kumar Singh, 47, and a youngster.
In the video footages that surfaced after the incident, villagers can be seen hurling stones, putting police vehicles to fire and vandalising public property.