Congress stages walkout from MP Assembly over death of two tribal persons

Opposition Congress members on Thursday created ruckus in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly on the issue of death of two tribal persons, including a woman, in the Mhow area of Indore district and staged a walkout from the House terming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government as "anti-adivasi".

Congress MLA and former minister Dr Vijay Laxmi Sadho alleged a young tribal woman was killed after being gangraped and when her community members gheraoed the Dongargaon police post under the Badgonda police station in Mhow in protest, police opened fire, killing a tribal man on Wednesday evening.

Leader of Opposition (LoP) Govind Singh and former chief minister Kamal Nath also raised the issue and sought to corner the BJP government.

Singh said the tribal woman was raped and murdered and when her community members protested over the issue and wanted to catch the accused, cops opened fire, killing the tribal man and injuring others, and demanded a statement from Home Minister Narottam Mishra.
Mishra termed the incident as "very unfortunate."

"As per available information, two things have come to light - first is what the Leader of Opposition has said and the other is that the tribal woman was living with a person and she got electrocuted and died," he said.

The victim's family members alleged that she was murdered and staged a road blockade following which the man (with whom she was residing) was arrested and brought to the police station, said the minister.

However, the protesters demanded that the arrested man be handed over to them, and indulged in stone-pelting causing injuries to 13 policemen, including the (Badgonda) police station in-charge, who was admitted to a hospital in Indore, Mishra said.

He said cops opened fire in self-defence and this unfortunate incident took place, referring to the death of the tribal man.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has already ordered a magisterial inquiry into the entire episode, Mishra said.

However, Congress MLA Sadho said the incident (tribal woman's death) took place around 6 pm and when a police complaint was not registered till 10 pm, people got enraged and reacted to it.

"What else can one expect from them in such a situation?" she asked
Later, after Question Hour when the matter was again raised by Congress members, the home minister read out a statement giving details of the incident.

However, Leader of Opposition Singh said Mishra has not mentioned anything about the woman's medical report and also questioned the rationale behind police opening fire on protesters.

The Congress members then created ruckus in the House and nothing could be heard in the din. Sadho and other Congress members rushed to the Well of the house and raised slogans.

Leader of Opposition Singh said the home minister is not providing a copy of the woman's medical report and also not announcing adequate financial assistance to her family and kin of the tribal man who died in police firing.
Congress members then staged a walkout from the House.