New Delhi: Taking strong action against the officials concern in the matter, the Election Commission on Thursday removed the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police of Munger over the violence during a Durga Puja event early this week.
The action from the EC comes on a day when a group of protesters went on rampage in the town, setting some police stations and outposts on fire and ransacking the SP and the SDO offices.
Probe ordered
Apart from removing the officials, the EC also ordered an inquiry into the firing and stone-pelting during the immersion of an idol of Durga in which one person had died and several others were injured. Magadh Divisional Commissioner Asangba Chuba Ao has been asked to complete the probe within a week.
Meanwhile, Munger District Magistrate Rajesh Meena (2012-batch IAS officer) has been transferred to the General Administration Department (GAD), while SP Lipi Sigh (2016-batch IPS officer) has been moved to the state police headquarters.
Munger gets new SP, DM
In replacement for DM and SP, the Bihar government, on the instructions of the Election Commission, named 2010-batch IAS officer Rachna Patil as the new District Magistrate and 2009-batch IPS officer Manavjit Singh Dhillon as new SP.
Earlier in the day, Munger witnessed large-scale violence and protests over the Monday night incident. The locals alleged that no action has been taken against the SP and other police personnel over the Monday night incident.
They also allegedly set police outposts at Purab Sarai and Basudeopur on fire, and ransacked the SP office and several other police stations and outposts.
Coming on the eve of the first phase of polling, the incident had its impact voting too as two of the three Assembly seats — Munger, Jamalpur — in the district witnessed lower voter turnout as compared to the 2015 polls.
While Munger constituency had witnessed a poll percentage of 54.26 in 2015, it recorded 47.89 Wednesday. Similarly, the decline was from 49.70 per cent to 47.24 per cent in Jamalpur this time.
Congress seeks Nitish Kumar’s removal
On the other side, the Congress stepped up its attack on the JD(U)-BJP government over the Munger firing incident and demanded the dismissal of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi to ensure the truth comes out and there is no cover up.
Congress spokesperson Gouvav Vallabh alleged that the firing on devotees, who wanted to immerse the idol of Goddess Durga, was done by the police at the behest of the government and all those responsible behind it, including the district magistrate and the Superintendent of police should be sacked.
‘No cover up please’
“There should be no cover up over the incident. Chief minister Nitish Kumar and deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi should resign immediately or should be dismissed as such an incident has never happened in the state,” he was quoted as saying by PTI.
He also demanded that those responsible for the firing – the SP and DM of Munger should also be sacked immediately to ascertain who was behind them and who ordered the firing.