UP govt removes Amethi DM after video with kin of BJP leader's slain son goes viral

The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday removed Amethi District Magistrate Prashant Sharma, a day after a video clip of him meeting the bereaved family of Vijay Kumar Singh alias Sonu Singh went viral on the social media.

On the demands of the family, Sharma had visited the post-mortem house on Wednesday, where the body of Sonu Singh (35), who was killed by armed miscreants on Tuesday night, was brought.

In the video clip that has gone viral, the DM is seen almost dragging a cousin of the deceased. Locals had expressed anguish over the administration's alleged insensitivity.

The state government has removed Prashant Sharma and put him in waiting, a government spokesman said on Thursday.

Moradabad Development Authority vice president Arun Kumar has been posted as Amethi's District Magistrate replacing Sharma, the spokesman said.

Tagging the DM, Amethi MP, Smriti Irani had tweeted "We should be modest and sensitive, this should be our effort. We are public servants, not rulers".

Sonu Singh owned a brick kiln and his father Shivnayak Singh is a senior leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the district.

In the video clip, the DM is purportedly heard telling Sonu Singh's family members that there is no country in the world where killings do not take place and the administration is not god that it can prevent incidents of crime from taking place.

"What would you have done had you been in our place? Would you have stopped the killing from taking place?," he is heard asking the crowd.

When Sunil Singh points out that a Dial 100 police team was in the vicinity and the crime could have prevented by acting promptly, the DM is seen almost dragging him holding his shirt and asking him if he can make out if anyone in the crowd has a gun.

When the people assembled to object to his behaviour, the DM is also seen reprimanding them.

Telling the crowd that he is the seniormost officer in the district, Sharma is heard speaking about his problems and the sensitive times in which he and his officers have been working round-the-clock in the video.

Sonu Singh was shot dead in Bisundaspur village, located within the Gauriganj Kotwali police station limits, on Tuesday night.

His family has named five persons from Gauriganj, all of whom have a criminal record, for their alleged involvement in the incident.