New Delhi: Officials familiar with the development informed that Justice JK Jain commission has given a clean chit to police and CRPF personnel allegedly involved in firing at agitating farmers in Mandsaur last year.

Five people were killed in police firing on June 6, 2017, at the peak of the farmers’ agitation in Madhya Pradesh. Another protester also died in a police lathi-charge at Daloda, located about 20 km away.

The report, which was delayed by nine months, stated that police firing had become necessary for the purposes of self-preservation and mob dispersal during the violent farmer agitation. It did not place any blame on then collector Swatantra Kumar Singh or superintendent of police OP Tripathi either, only noting that the information network of the police and state administration was “very weak”. None of the farmers’ demands – loan waiver or higher price for agricultural produce – could be met at the district level, the commission reasoned.

According to the report, the first incident of police firing occurred at BahiPasharvanath in Pipliyamandi, where the mob surrounded eight CRPF men and began pelting them with stones. They then caught hold of two personnel, Vivek Mishra and Udai Prasad, and began beating them while trying to snatch their rifles. Three other constables who came to their rescue met with a similar fate. Repeated warnings issued by the remaining CRPF personnel went in vain. Finally, shorn of all choices, they opened fire – killing two protesters and injuring three others.

The probe panel, however, said it found no evidence supporting the security personnel’s claim that the mob tried to set the CRPF constables on fire.