New Delhi: A day after a young IPS officer in Madhya Pradesh was crushed to death by a tractor-trolley allegedly carrying illegally mined stones, the brutal murder has forced the Chief Minister to order a judicial inquiry. IPS Officer Narendra Kumar's father said his son was under pressure to go slow against the mining mafia. But the state police denies any role of the mining mafia in the killing.
Madhya Pradesh DGP Nandan Dubey, in an interview with IBN18 Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai, said that the police is depending on solid evidence.
Transcript of Nandan Dubey's interview with Rajdeep Sardesai:
Rajdeep Sardesai: Appreciate your joining us Mr Nandan Dubey. Sir, the big question is that even before any probe has been done into the murder of Narendra Kumar, the Madhya Pradesh police seem to be concluding that the mining mafia is not involved, how can you say this when everyone knows that illegal quarrying of stone has been done at a large scale in the area. Could this have happened without the patronage of politicians?
Nandan Dubey: No, it's not like that, we are actually depending on solid evidence. Everything happened in broad daylight and there have been two of the gunmen and the driver was with them. The sequence of events is very clear and there is no ambiguity or doubt about that, so whatever has happened is a one of its kind situation. And the sequence of events led to this tragic incident.
Rajdeep Sardesai: Mr Dubey, the fact is that it is being alleged that the local policemen used to release these tractor trollies, which are being used to carry the 'illegally' quarried stone. Therefore, Narendra Kumar was trying to stop what the local police was actually encouraging in this part of Madhya Pradesh.
Nandan Dubey: I think you are right. You know Narendra Kumar had done about 20 odd cases of this kind and he has successfully done it in last two months, ever since he was there. And as far as we are concerned, we haven't come across any of these specific complaints, they are very general statements I think.
Rajdeep Sardesai: But, Mr Dubey, Narendra Kumar's father has already alleged that it was a conspiracy, his wife is even suggesting that a BJP local MP may be involved in this. Will there be a fair probe given that there is a BJP government in power? Can we really expect a full free and fair investigation?
Nandan Dubey: Actually a much wider inquiry has been ordered by the state government and all the facts are welcome, if they are giving any supporting facts or anything that comes in as a hard evidence it will certainly be looked into by the judicial inquiry which is of a much higher level.
Rajdeep Sardesai: Sir, but the bottom line is that, there is a feeling that the Madhya Pradesh government has turned a blind eye to the illegal mining mafia in the state. This is not the first such instance in the state where the mining mafia has been involved particularly in this belt of Morena. I mean, there will be, therefore this impression that the mining mafia enjoys political patronage.
Nandan Dubey: As far as this officer is concerned, he was doing it fearlessly for the period of two months, ever since he was there. And that doesn't seem to be having any influence on him of any type going back on whatever he was doing and he did it successfully. Twenty cases are already on record, and even yesterday when he was doing all this, he did it fearlessly. He took a lot of risk and did all this, so I don't think there was any misconduct yesterday or in the last two months.
Rajdeep Sardesai: Sir, let me ask a direct question. Is the police helpless against the mining mafia and land mafia in a state like Madhya Pradesh? Because these groups enjoy political patronage, you cannot act against them. Narendra Kumar tried to act against them and has paid with his life. Would you agree that it is very difficult to act against these mafias because of the political patronage they enjoy?
Nandan Dubey: I think one would appreciate that direction to take action against all these people had come from the government level 15 days back. And in all these efforts, there have been seizures of liquor and there have been seizures of these kind of people who have been taking law into their hands. So this campaign is going on. It's actually going to be monitored tomorrow again. There is going to be a video conferencing on all the efforts that have been put in.
Rajdeep Sardesai: One final question. Will Narendra Kumar's family get justice? Will the culprits be brought to book, or is the tractor driver going to be seen as someone who has acted on his own and become a soft target?
Nandan Dubey: We are going to do everything that is required in this matter and there is no question of anybody being let off, if there is hard evidence we will act.
Comments
0 comment