The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday removed the district magistrate of Amethi after a purported video of him manhandling a family member of a trader, who was killed on Tuesday, went viral, news agency PTI reported.
Moradabad Development Authority vice president Arun Kumar has been posted as the DM of Amethi.
In the video, Prashant Sharma, the district magistrate, can be seen dragging Sunil Singh, the cousin of Vijay Kumar Singh alias Sonu Singh, the 38-year-old trader who was shot dead on Tuesday night.
Sunil Singh had pointed out that a ‘Dial 100’ team of the UP police was near the scene of the crime and could have prevented the incident. “What would you have done had you been in our place?” the DM asks.
He then asks Sunil Singh, a senior officer of Uttar Pradesh’s Provincial Civil Service (PCS), if he can make out if anyone in the crowd has a gun.
Union minister and Amethi MP Smriti Irani tweeted about the incident and tagged Sharma asking him to be to be courteous and sensitive. “We all are servants of the public and not rulers,” she tweeted.
Vijay Kumar Singh owned a brick kiln and his father Shivnayak Singh is a local leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Police said he was killed over an extortion demand of Rs 2 lakh. The victim’s family has named five people in a first information report (FIR). He was killed just 500 metres from the office of the superintendent of police (SP).
The district magistrate did not respond even after several attempts to reach him.
In the purported video clip, the DM is heard telling Vijay Singh’s family that there is no country in the world where killings do not take place, news agency PTI reported.
Locals had expressed anguish over the administration’s alleged insensitivity.
Sonu Singh was shot dead on Tuesday night in Bisundaspur village, near Gauriganj area of Amethi Kotwali police station limits, on Tuesday night.
Source: HindustanTimes