Spotlight on Amethi DM after video with kin of BJP leader's slain son goes viral

A video clip of Amethi District Magistrate (DM) Prashant Sharma's meeting with the bereaved family of Vijay Kumar Singh alias Sonu Singh has gone viral on the social media, with the locals expressing anguish over the administration's alleged insensitivity.

On the demands of the family, the DM 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, a senior PCS officer, Sunil Singh.

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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 and when Sunil Singh points out that a Dial 100 police team was in the vicinity and it could have prevented the incident 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 there object to his behaviour, the DM is also seen reprimanding them. Telling them that he is the seniormost officer of 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.

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.

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