Sonbhadra massacre: District Magistrate, Superintendent of Police removed

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday removed Sonbhadra's District Magistrate (DM) Ankit Agarwal and Superintendent of Police (SP) Salman Taj Patil, 18 days after Umbha massacre on July 17.

The State government has also taken action against 8 gazetted and 7 non-gazetted officers and has formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the massacre.

"On July 17 in Sonbhadra, an unfortunate incident took place. Later I visited the area on July 21 along with the DGP of the state. We had formed two committees -- one to look into land disputes and the other one was about police cases," Adityanath said at a press conference.

"We received these two reports on Saturday. We will take action against all responsible for this incident," he added.

Speaking about the root cause of the incident, Adityanath said: "More than 1300 bigha land registered under a society was moved in an individual's name in 1989. This caused the land dispute. In 2017, the sale of land started which caused more friction and eventually culminated in the incident which took place on July 17."

"More than one lakh hectare land was grabbed by forming fake societies in Sonbhadra and Mirzapur under the Congress's regime. The investigation committee will submit its report in three months' time. We will take action under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) related to illegal occupancy of land," he said.

At least ten people including women were killed, while over 20 sustained injuries when a village headman and his associates allegedly opened fire at a group of people over a land dispute at Ubbha in Ghorawal area in the district on July 17.

The incident took place when the village headman went to take possession of his land purchased two years ago.