MP: IPS officer killed by mining mafia cremated

Bhopal: The IPS officer, who was brutally killed as he took on the mining mafia in Morena, Madhya Pradesh was cremated on Friday afternoon. Narendra Kumar, a 30-year-old IPS officer, was mowed down by a tractor-trolley on Thursday, when he tried to stop the vehicle carrying illegally mined stones.

The state's top police officer has denied the involvement of the stone mafia even though the officer's family claims that Narendra Kumar had filed several cases againt tractor owners in the area - which were let go by the local police.

Father of the deceased officer Keshav Dev claims that this 'was a planned incident' and that his son's murder was a political conspiracy and that his son and daughter-in-law were "threatened" by a local legislator.

"We found out about the incident from our relatives in Delhi. First we were told it was an accident and the actual facts came in much later. We were not given a copy of the FIR too. He was under a lot of pressure lately. He told me that he booked a lot of tractors but the local cops let them go."

The 2009 batch officer was allegedly crushed to death under the wheels of a tractor-trolley by the tractor owner. However, when the driver did not budge, he again crossed it and this time stood in front of the vehicle in order to bring it to a halt on the spot.

But the tractor driver identified as Manoj Gurjar instead of stopping the vehicle, speeded and hit the 30-year-old officer, crushing him under the wheels. Kumar was declared dead when brought to hospital.

The tractor driver, Manoj Gurjar was later arrested and booked for murder and a case has been registered under section 302 of the IPC against him. The DIG said that prima facie it appears that the mining mafia active in the area is behind the incident.

State's Director General of Police (DGP) Nandan Dube had earlier lauded the officer and said, "Narendra Kumar was an exceptionally outgoing kind of officer. He was taking lot of initiative in the past few months."

Kumar, a Bihar cadre IPS Officer, had sought a transfer from his cadre three months ago to be with his pregnant wife, who is an MP cadre IAS officer.

Narendra Kumar Singh was posted at Banmore as Sub Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP) since last one month and during his brief tenure he had taken on the mining mafia head-on by seizing number of trucks and tractors engaged in illegal mining in the area, the sources said.