Bhopal: Veteran Congress leader and former chief minister Digvijay Singh on Tuesday pulled up the Kamal Nath government for giving clean chit to police in the June 2107 incident of police firing in Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh leading to death of six farmers, creating a ripple in state administration.
Reacting sharply to a statement by state home minister Bala Bachhan made in the assembly giving a clean chit to Mandsaur district administration in the 2017 police firing on agitating farmers, Mr Singh said, “The state government has bailed out BJP in the incident. This is not acceptable.”
Mr Bachhan said police opened fire in self-defence, thus bailing out the local administration in the incident.
Mr Singh’s comment caused a stir in the state administration prompting chief minister Kamal Nath to issue a clarification in his official Twitter account that “We will not spare the guilty in the Mandsaur police firing… This is our word”.
In a hurriedly convened news conference here on Tuesday, Mr Bachhan declared that a fresh probe would be ordered into the incident to bring to book the guilty in the incident.
The incident took place during the previous BJP government in the state.
Congress had made it a major issue in the November assembly elections vowing to punish the guilty in the incident.
Mr Singh also took a swipe at state forest minister Umang Singh for dismissing the allegations of irregularities in plantation of six crore saplings along Narmada river bank during the previous BJP government in the state.
