Angry residents of a village in this Maharashtra district attempted to burn alive an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) official in protest against the quality of water supplied to them. The attempt was foiled and 16 people have been arrested.
"Residents of Antapur village of Satana tehsil were protesting to demand better quality of water supply facilities since last five days. Today (Friday), they barged into the office of Ranjit Kumar, the CEO of Nashik Zilla Parishad and poured oil on him with an intention to burn him alive," said Police Inspector Kailash Ghodke of Bhadrakali Police Station in Nashik city.
Kumar, an IAS officer of 2008 batch, said he was totally taken aback by the attack. "However, I gained my composure and embraced those who poured oil over me in an attempt to defend myself," he said.
On the reason for the attack, he said that the residents of the village were not happy with the quality of the pipelines laid for the water supply in the village. They demanded that a quality check be done and the matter be resolved.
"I had sent the executive engineer to review the pipelines and later had also given orders to redo some parts of the pipeline. I am not sure about their intention behind taking this step in spite of the orders being given yesterday (Thursday)," he said.
Ghodke said 16 of the protesters had been arrested and were being questioned.
"Kumar has also lodged a first information report against the accused," he said.