IFS probationers were allegedly assaulted by former Gujarat MLA Mahipatsinh Jadeja on Saturday. (Kavita Upadhyay)
Vipin Kumar Singh (33), an Indian Forest Service (IFS) probationer at Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy (IGNFA), Dehradun, had gone on his first field tour “to learn lessons on forestry and wildlife”. However, with a swollen right eye and an injured forehead due to blows of a lathi that were allegedly showered by former Gujarat MLA Mahipatsinh Jadeja, Singh returned from the tour with lessons “quite different” than what he had imagined.
The tour began on March 4. Singh and 47 other IFS probationers travelled from Agra to parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat. The tour ended on March 23 at Gir National Park.
On March 24, when their bus stopped at a petrol pump on NH-27 in Ribda village in Gujarat’s Rajkot district, Singh got down to smoke a cigarette. “I walked a little away from the petrol pump to smoke and stood outside a residential compound when a boy, probably in his teens, asked me to go away,” said Singh, who hails from Allahabad, and has an degree in mechanical engineering from IIT Bombay. He is in a room of IGNFA and is preparing to leave for a check-up of the eye, and three stitches on the forehead, just above the right eye.
In minutes, Singh recalls, the boy was joined by an elderly man, who has been identified from CCTV footage as Jadeja. The two then beat up Singh with hands and a lathi. “Few of us spotted him bleeding and rushed to him. But he wasn’t in a situation to tell us anything,” IFS probationer Pankaj Kumar Garg (30), says. While they were trying to track Jadeja, a white SUV sped towards them and hit Sunil Kumar Thalor (33), Rahul Kumar (27) and Garg. The three have suffered internal head injuries and bruises, says Garg. Three days after the incident, Jadeja (72) remains absconding.
Antrip Sood, Rajkot Rural SSP says, “We’ve raided atleast 30 places, but are yet to find Jadeja.” Driver of the SUV, however, has been arrested. Sood says, “He has told police that someone was urinating near Jadeja’s home and that led to the incident…” Singh, however, said, “I was smoking. I wasn’t urinating.”
In his cabin on the institute’s first floor, Dr Shashi Kumar, IGNFA’s Director, is contemplating over the steps the institute needs to take to avoid repetition of such “unforeseen” incidents. “The probationers who have been hit chose forest services. This experience has hit their morale. So quick action against the accused is imperative.”