Lucknow: A video clip of Amethi District Magistrate (DM) Prashant Sharma's meeting with the bereaved family of Vijay Kumar Singh alias Sonu Singh has gone viral on the social media, with the locals expressing anguish over the administration's alleged insensitivity.
As sought by the family members of the deceased, the DM visited the post-mortem house on Wednesday, where the body of Sonu Singh (35), who was killed by armed miscreants on Tuesday night, was brought. In the clip, the DM is seen dragging a cousin of the deceased, a senior PCS officer, Sunil Singh.
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 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 is heard asking the crowd and when Sunil Singh points out that a Dial 100 police team was in the vicinity and it could have prevented the incident by acting promptly, the DM is seen almost dragging him holding his shirt and asking him if he can make out if anyone in the crowd has a gun.
When the people assembled there objected to his behaviour, the DM is also seen reprimanding them. Telling them that he is the senior-most officer of the district, Sharma is heard speaking about his problems and the sensitive times in which he and his officers have been working round-the-clock.
The matter escalated when Amethi MP Smriti Irani took cognizance of the issue and tweeted a word of caution to the local DM. On Wednesday evening, she wrote on Twitter, “We should always try to be humble and sensitive. We are the servants of public not their rulers @DmAmethi.”
Later in the evening, the case took a new turn when the PCS officer who was allegedly mishandled by Sharma released a video and gave a clean chit to the latter. In it, the PCS officer said the clip of the Amethi DM misbehaving with him was an edited one and in fact, Sharma had addressed all the concerns of the family.
The video was circulated in administrative and media circles by Sharma himself, who had earlier been in the news for his alleged misbehaviour with a high court Judge.
On Tuesday night, Sonu Singh was shot dead at Bisundaspur village, located within the Gauriganj Kotwali police station limits.
Sources said when two men, identified as Chandrashekhar and Arpit, entered into an argument over an old issue, Sonu Singh, who was standing nearby, tried to intervene. However, he was allegedly shot at by Chandrashekhar, following which he was rushed to hospital where he was declared brought dead.
His family has named five persons from Gauriganj, all of whom have a criminal record, for their alleged involvement in the incident.
(With inputs from PTI)
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