The Question Hour of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly witnessed chaos on Friday over the death of two tribal persons, including a woman, owing to protests by Opposition members.
As soon as the House assembled for the day’s proceedings to start with the Question Hour, Opposition legislators Bala Bachchan, Kantilal Bhuria and Sajjan Singh Verma raised the issue of deaths in Mhow, some 25 kilometres from Indore.
Verma said the woman’s parents and the man killed in police firing have been booked. Following the death of the 22-year-old tribal woman earlier this week, members of her community on Wednesday protested outside a police station. During the protest, police opened fire, killing a tribal man.
Legislative Affairs Minister Narottam Mishra said the “short” post-mortem report of the woman suggests that she died of electrocution.
He said a first information report (FIR) has been registered against 13-17 persons on the basis of CCTV footage of the violent protest in which a police inspector sustained grave injuries to his eye. Dissatisfied by the reply, the Opposition continued to raise the issue, prompting Speaker Girish Gautam to adjourn the entire hourlong Question Hour.
When the House reassembled for the Zero Hour, Congress member Vijaylaxmi Sadho again raised the tribal deaths in Mhow. Mishra said the Opposition was playing politics over dead bodies.
With folded hands, Sadho requested the speaker to allow her to raise the matter. But the speaker started conducting the listed business amid the bedlam.
Sadho, in tears, along with other women members, walked out of the House. This was the second day, the House saw din over the death of the tribal man and woman. Officials said the woman, who hailed from Khargone district, died in Mhow earlier this week. After her death, tribals and members of Jai Adivasi Yuva Sangathan (JAYS) gheraoed the Dongargaon police outpost under Badgonda police station on Wednesday night, demanding that a case of rape and abduction be registered against a man, with whom she was allegedly in a relationship, and his family members.
