Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Monday lauded the State police for their “alertness” and suspended five jail officials, including a Deputy Inspector-General of Police, for the jailbreak by SIMI men.
The Additional Director-General of jail administration was also removed from his post.
However, conflicting versions from two senior MP police officials about the encounter created confusion.
While MP ATS chief Sanjeev Shami told reporters that no weapons were recovered from the slain SIMI men, Bhopal Inspector General of Police Yogesh Choudhari told a press conference that “four firearms and three sharp-edged weapons” had been recovered from the deceased.
The ATS chief said three core teams had followed the SIMI men in the direction they were seen to be running since early morning, whereas the Bhopal IG claimed that the first inputs about them were received at 10 a.m. A Bhopal-based lawyer Parvej Alam, who was representing the alleged SIMI extremists in court, raised questions about the encounter and demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident.
When questioned about the ATS chief’s version of no firing from the alleged SIMI men, Mr. Choudhari said the SIMI men fired from two 315 bore guns and two 12 bore guns. “The police fired around 46 rounds,” he said.
