BHOPAL: The Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) has demanded the immediate removal of 2009 batch IPS officer Amit Singh from the post of Jabalpur district police superintendent, after a video showing the SP dancing with Madhya Pradesh cabinet minister Lakhan Ghanghoriya in a marriage procession, went viral over social media recently.

A BJP delegation led by state party vice-president Vijesh Lunawat met the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO-MP) VL Kantha Rao in Bhopal on Tuesday and submitted a complaint, demanding the immediate removal of the IPS officer Amit Singh as SP Jabalpur.

The BJP leaders submitted the video clip which has gone viral over social media and submitted that free and fair Lok Sabha polls in Jabalpur will not be possible under a district police chief, who is openly dancing with the MP minister and Jabalpur East MLA Lakhan Ghanghoriya.

The BJP leaders alleged that even during the 2018 assembly polls, the SP Jabalpur Amit Singh had lodged cases under serious IPC provisions against sitting BJP MLA Anchal Sonkar to indirectly help the Congress candidate Lakhan Ghanghoriya.

Interestingly, the BJP which was ruling the state during last year’s assembly polls never complained at that time about the cases being lodged against their sitting MLA and aides at that time.

Confirming the receipt of the complaint from the BJP delegation on Tuesday, the CEO-MP VL Kantha Rao told The New Indian Express that the complaint is being probed.

According to informed sources, the video pertained to the February 21, 2019 marriage of one Vinayraj Singh in Banda town of Sagar district. Vinayraj Singh is the brother of IPS officer Vivekraj Singh, whose wife Varnali Deka is an Assam cadre 2009 batch IAS officer. As Varnali Deka is SP Jabalpur Amit Singh’s batchmate, hence Singh was at the marriage function on the invitation of the IPS-IAS officer couple.

Importantly, the groom Vinayraj’s uncles are both BJP and Congress leaders. MP minister and Jabalpur East Congress MLA Lakhan Ghanghoriya and union minister and BJP MP from Tikamgarh seat Virendra Kumar, both are Vinayraj’s uncles. The groom Vinayraj’s other elder brother and sister-in-law too are powerful BJP leaders in Sagar district of MP.

When contacted in the matter by the TNIE, the SP Jabalpur Amit Singh said he was invited to the concerned marriage by his IAS officer batchmate and her IPS officer husband and the video clip which has gone viral over social media has been manipulated.

Importantly, Amit Singh is among the three IPS officers of MP cadre (SP Sagar Amit Sanghi and SP Bhind Rudolf Alvares being the other two) who were felicitated by the CEO MP office with State Award for Best Electoral Practices award for their role in holding free and fair assembly polls in MP last year.

The Jabalpur Lok Sabha seat is of particular significance for the BJP, as the state BJP president Rakesh Singh has been representing it since last three terms.