3 CRPF top cops shunted out for Dantewada goof-up

NEW DELHI: Three top officers of the CRPF, held responsible for their inability to anticipate and prevent the massacre of its jawans in Dantewada last month, have been shunted out.

Fixing responsibility for the April 6 Maoist attack in Dantewada, CRPF DIG (Dantewada) Nalin Prabhat has been shunted out of Chhattisgarh to Chandigarh, commandant of the ill-fated battalion Bimal Kumar Bisht will now be posted at a CRPF training centre at Avadi, Tamil Nadu. Another force inspector, Sanjeev Bagre, has been transferred to Jammu and Kashmir.

The action comes after the E N Rammohan committee blamed the Dantewada botch-up on faulty conceptualisation of the area domination exercise — done by Mr Prabhat along with Dantewada SP Amaresh Mishra — and the failure of the commandant that standard operating procedures were followed by his battalion so as to minimise casualty or spot the likely ambush points.

Even a court of inquiry set up by CRPF soon after the incident found the three CRPF officers guilty of "lapses as well as omissions and commissions."

Taking over from Mr Prabhat as DIG, Dantewada, will be Mr R S Sahota, while Mr Ashok Swami and Inspector Dinesh will replace Mr Bisht and Mr Bagre respectively.

Incidentally, the home ministry is also said to have recommended to the Chhattisgarh government to take action against Dantewada SP Amaresh Mishra and another DIG of Chhattisgarh police. However, the state government is not believed to be favourably inclined to remove Mr Mishra.