The Central Bureau of Investigation will now investigate the brutal murder of young IPS officer Narendra Kumar, who was crushed to death by a tractor-trolley loaded with illegally-mined stones at Banmore in Madhya Pradesh’s Morena district on March 8.
On this sensitive issue, the state-wide protest bandh called by the main Opposition Congress received overwhelming public support. In the state capital, the public transport system came to a standstill and all shops and business establishments remained closed on Tuesday.
Breaking the deadlock on this issue, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced at a hurriedly called press conference at the state Assembly conference room on Tuesday that the state government would be writing to the CBI to investigate the killing of the young IPS officer, who was posted as sub-divisional Police officer at Banmore in Morena.
Mr Chouhan said that the slain police officer’s widow, Madhu Rani, an IAS officer, had expressed satisfaction over the state government’s decision to institute a judicial inquiry but at the same time requested that the matter be handed over to the CBI.
It is because of her request that the government has decided to refer the matter to the CBI, Mr Chouhan told media-persons. He also said that the state government had written to the chief justice of Madhya Pradesh high court to appoint a sitting judge to head the judicial probe. To a pointed query whether the judicial inquiry and investigation by the CBI would go on simultaneously, Mr Chouhan said that the legality of the matter will have to be studied.
When asked why he had chosen to first speak to the press instead of announcing in the Assembly the decision to refer the Narendra Kumar case to the CBI when the House was in session, the chief minister drew attention to the noise and din created by the Congress MLAs, who rushed to the well of the House and started shouting slogans when the Assembly met on Tuesday morning.