Cop’s killing: MP bans quarrying; but denies mafia hand

All sand, stone and gravel quarrying has been stopped in Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh following the deliberate running-over of young Indian Police Service officer Narendra Kumar Singh last Thursday by a tractor laden with stones.

The police held one Kuber Singh, the main suspect in the incident, on Sunday. The driver of the tractor which Narendra Kumar was trying to stop for a check but tried to speed away has already been arrested.

At the same time, the state government has done a strange volte face on the incident, claiming on Sunday that it was an accident and there was no quarrying mafia in the state.

On Friday, both Deputy General of Police for Chambal Nandan Dubey and Madhya Pradesh home minister Uma Shankar Gupta had agreed that the killing of Kumar was not an accident. Dubey had agreed that a quarrying mafia was active in the state.

But later both claimed it was an accident unrelated to illegal quarrying; apparently after a strong word from chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Dubey had earlier lauded the officer. "Narendra Kumar was an exceptionally proactive kind of officer. He was taking lot of initiative in the past few months," he had said soon after the incident.