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Amethi DM removed a day after his alleged ‘misbehavior’ with slain man’s kin
LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday removed Amethi district magistrate (DM) Prashant Sharma, a day after widespread outrage over his alleged manhandling
LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday removed Amethi district magistrate (DM) Prashant Sharma, a day after widespread outrage over his alleged manhandling and misbehavior with a relative of a murdered man in the district.
The state government, in a press release, said Sharma has been put on wait list while Arun Kumar, vice- chairman Moradabad Development Authority (MDA), has been appointed DM, Amethi.
Union minister and Amethi MP Smriti Irani had on Wednesday tweeted about the incident, suggesting to the DM to be courteous and sensitive.
“We all are servants of the public and not rulers,” she mentioned in her tweet tagged to the twitter handle of the Amethi DM.
A video, which went viral on Wednesday, showed Sharma holding a family member of the deceased and pushing him for a few yards without any provocation. The incident took place during a protest outside the post-mortem house after the man’s murder.
“In the video that has gone viral, the DM is seen almost dragging the deceased’s cousin, Sunil Singh, who is also a senior PCS officer,” said Amit Kumar, a local. He said the DM’s act was opposed by several people present at the spot.
Sharma faced a lot of criticism over his act when the video went viral on different social media platforms.
Trader Vijay Kumar Singh, who owned a brick kiln, was shot dead allegedly over extortion demand of ₹ 2 lakh barely 500 metres from the office of the superintendent of police (SP), Amethi at around 7pm on Tuesday.
His brother Arpit Kumar Singh has accused two persons, Chandrashekhar Kesarwani and Shubham Tiwari, and three unidentified persons, in the FIR lodged with the Gauriganj police station in connection with the murder. The deceased’s father Shivnayak Singh is a local leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Earlier Sharma said, “I did not misbehave with the family member of the deceased. The video that went viral was only a part of my conversation with the family members.”
Before being removed on Thursday, Sharma took to social media to clarify his point. He not only posted a video of Sunil Singh on the twitter handle of DM Amethi but also posted a statement which said that “media is an important pillar of democracy yet it is not infallible.”
“Videos can be edited to look like something that is not true and spread to create mischief. The statement of Sunil Singh clarifies the situation. We thank Singh for speaking the truth in a time of grief and assure him again that Amethi administration and police are with him and his family,” Sharma said.
In a statement to the media, in the video, Sunil Singh said “some news channels had carried a report that DM Amethi had misbehaved with me. It’s not the fact. The video aired by the channels has been edited. DM heard my grievances and assured to do the needful. I have personal relationship with the DM since several years.”
