Girl’s murder — House panel indicts dist officials

BHOPAL, July 23: Six months back teenager Preeti Shrivastava was crushed to death by a jeep driven by a bunch of well-connected ruffians ...

BHOPAL, July 23: Six months back teenager Preeti Shrivastava was crushed to death by a jeep driven by a bunch of well-connected ruffians inside her college compound at Ambikapur in Surguja district because she had spurned their advances. In the furore that ensued in the Assembly, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh had promised that the guilty would be punished no matter how well-connected they were.

Like many other political promises, this too has turned out to be mere rhetoric.

The Assembly panel constituted to look into the case has found that the entire district administration intimidated the family and friends of the victim, pressuring them to drop the charges.

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Released recently, the house panel’s report charges district officials — including the District Magistrate and the District Superintendent of Police — with not only delaying action against the accused but actively abetting them in helping intimidate the witnesses.

The panel holds the administration squarely responsible for thefact that most witnesses in the case either turned hostile or refused to give evidence. The logical inference is that “all this was done under pressure from above.”

While the report does not identify those pressuring the government machinery, it does point a finger towards their status when it says that the role of Ambikapur municipality chairman T S Singhdeo in the case was found to be dubious. He is a member of Surguja’s erstwhile royal family.

The house panel cites several glaring examples of how the state machinery was used unabashedly to help the accused.

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Nisha Thakur, a friend of Preeti, was an eyewitness to the gruesome murder. She and her family were given no effective protection despite repeated complaints that they were being threatened. Instead, a stall run by Nisha’s brother, Umesh Thakur, with an earlier government loan under the self-employment scheme was confiscated by the administration just a week before Nisha was to appear in the court on June 25. It was released on June 26, afterNisha didn’t turn up in court.

Sunita Mistry, another friend of Preeti, who had led the agitation on the issue, was similarly threatened. A shop owned by her father near his house for the past 20 years was demolished by the administration in a swift, unexpected action on February 20.

June Chaudhary, chairperson of the panel, confirms that Ambikapur lawyers told her these actions were arbitrary and punitive. The panel has summarily rejected the reasons the government put forward explaining its actions.

Naming the former and present Collector and SP of the district for these happenings, it notes that the “callous attitude of the administration still persists.” It has pointed out that efforts were also made to keep key witness Nisha Thakur from meeting the panel and finally its members had to visit her at her home.