Tractor crushes IPS officer to death in Madhya Pradesh

A young Indian Police Service (IPS) officer was killed on Thursday when a tractor-trolley, suspected to be laden with illegally-quarried stones, ran over him when he tried to stop it in Madhya Pradesh’s Morena district, police said. The driver was arrested.

Narendra Kumar, 32, sub-divisional police officer of Bamor, was trying to stop the tractor in the afternoon, a police officer said.

“But instead of stopping, the driver ran over him. Kumar was rushed to hospital but died on the way,” DIG (Chambal) DP Gupta told IANS.

Kumar, a 2009 batch IPS officer, was on probation. His wife Madhurani Tewatia, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, is also posted in Madhya Pradesh but is presently on maternity leave in Delhi.

Tractor driver Manoj Gurjar was arrested and the vehicle seized.

Kumar’s father Keshav Dev alleged that the incident took place because of the careless of police. “Should an IPS officer be sent alone to stop illegal mafia? Where was the force,” he asked.

Home minister Uma Shankar Gupta of the Bharatiya Janata Party said the guilty would not be spared.

Leader of Opposition Ajay Singh of the Congress demanded the resignation of the home minister.

He alleged that chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was patronising illegal mining in the state.

“At the time of the festival of happiness (Holi), it is the saddest moment in the history of Madhya Pradesh. But it has happened because the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government has not taken any action against illegal mining mafia while we have raised the issue several times,” Ajay Singh told IANS.

“The illegal mining has taken place in chief minister’s constituency… the chief minister is patronising mining mafia,” he added.

Chouhan told reporters that it was a sad moment and the opposition should not try to gain political mileage out of it.