Aligarh:
Two days after an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, Narendra Kumar, was killed when a man driving a tractor ran over him in Madhya Pradesh's Morena district, his wife today demanded a CBI inquiry into the incident. The 30-year-old IPS officer was apparently killed for trying to combat illegal mining in the state.
"One day you say it is a murder and the other you don't - this is not acceptable. You might as well keep your mouth shut. I expect a CBI inquiry. If this happens, I will be more than happy and obliged. If someone has done something good for the country, you can't just get hold of the driver and feel that it is enough. You need to start from the roots to eradicate this mafiasm," said Mr Kumar's wife Madhurani Tewatia, who is an IAS officer and is expecting their first child.
Ms Tewatia's comments come after the local police denied that the driver was part of a larger conspiracy to assassinate Mr Kumar, as alleged by his family. One of the senior policemen handling the case, DP Gupta, said that going by eyewitness accounts and evidences available so far, it appears that the driver had no links with the mining mafia.
"If you can't give protection to an officer, you can't expect them to protect your people and state. If this has happened with me, I will definitely follow it up. I won't let it go so easily," Ms Tewatia also said.
Ms Tewatia's demand for a CBI inquiry comes on a day the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh ordered a judicial inquiry to investigate the murder of Mr Kumar.
Mr Kumar was killed on Thursday when a man driving a tractor ran over him. Mr Kumar had tried to stop the tractor, which was loaded with illegally-mined stones in the Morena district. Mr Kumar spotted the tractor while he was out patrolling. When the driver refused to stop, Mr Kumar got out of his jeep and blocked the tractor's path. The driver ploughed into him. Morena district is rich in stones meant for construction and the sand here is one of the finest in the country.
Mr Kumar was posted at Banmore as a Sub Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP) a month ago and had taken on the mining mafia by cancelling several licenses and seizing a number of trucks and tractors engaged in illegal quarrying.