Congress leader Rana Goswami joins BJP in Assam
Goswami's decision to switch sides came after he tendered his resignation from the Congress on February 28, followed by a trip to New Delhi.
The report of the Jain Commission constituted to probe the firing on farmers in Mandsaur last year has been manipulated and reveals the anti-farmer face of the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh, alleged the Congress state working president and chief-whip in Assembly, Ram Niwas Rawat, here on Wednesday.
Six farmers were killed in police firing during protests in Mandsaur district on 6 June last year. The state government formed a single-member commission of retired high court judge J K Jain as pledged by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to the victims’ families.
Rawat said it was unfortunate that farmers have not been given justice by the Jain Commission. “The report of the commission makes it clear that the state government is anti-farmers and wants to save the culprits in the case,” he said.
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The commission has given a clean chit to the district administration and police. “The over nine-month delay in releasing the report indicates manipulation. As per the notification of the Commission, the report should have been released by 11 September last year but it has been extended four times,” Rawat said.
The report said police should have fired first at the protesters’ legs, but instead resorted to direct firing. The commission, which examined 211 people including 185 civilians and 26 government officials, gave a clean chit to then collector Swatantra Kumar Singh and Superintendent of Police O P Tripathi, both of whom were suspended immediately after the incident.
The commission has also given a clean chit to CRPF personnel and said the firing was resorted to in self-defence and to disburse the protesters.
Rawat belongs to the Gwalior-Chambal region and is the MLA from Vijaypur constituency. He is a leader of Other Backward Classes and farmers in the state.
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