The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday, 14 November, removed Amethi District Magistrate Prashant Sharma a day after a video clip of him meeting the family of the deceased Vijay Kumar Singh went viral.
On the demands of the family, Sharma had visited the post-mortem house on Wednesday, where the body of 35-year-old Vijay Singh, alias Sonu, who was killed by armed miscreants on Tuesday night, was brought.
In the alleged video clip that has gone viral, the DM is seen almost dragging a cousin of the deceased.
Locals had expressed anguish over the administration's alleged insensitivity.
The state government has removed Prashant Sharma and put him in waiting, a government spokesperson said.
Arun Kumar to Be the New Amethi DM
Moradabad Development Authority vice president Arun Kumar has been posted as Amethi's District Magistrate replacing Sharma, the spokesperson said.
Tagging the DM, Amethi MP Smriti Irani had tweeted, “We should be modest and sensitive, this should be our effort. We are public servants, not rulers.”
Sonu Singh owned a brick kiln and his father, Shivnayak Singh, is a senior leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the district.
In the video clip, the DM is purportedly heard telling Sonu Singh's family members that there is no country in the world where killings do not take place and the administration is not god that it can prevent incidents of crime from taking place.
“What would you have done had you been in our place? Would you have stopped the killing from taking place?” he can be heard asking the crowd in the said video.
When Sunil Singh, the deceased’s relative, points that a Dial 100 police team was in the vicinity and the crime could have been prevented by acting promptly, the DM is seen almost dragging him by his shirt and asking him if he can make out if anyone in the crowd has a gun.
Prashant Sharma Counters the Video
Sonu was shot dead in Bisundaspur village, located within the Gauriganj Kotwali police station limits, on Tuesday night.
His family has named five persons from Gauriganj, all of whom have a criminal record, for their alleged involvement in the incident.
Some days ago Sharma had landed himself in another controversy when he arrived late for a court hearing in Amethi and the judge punished him by keeping him in custody till the evening.
(With inputs from PTI)
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