IPS officer Anurag Sujania, who was overseeing the investigation into the Sagar hooch deaths in Madhya Pradesh, has resigned days after being transferred from his post as Sagar’s superintendent of police to the state police headquarters in Bhopal, the Times of India reported on Wednesday.
Sujania submitted his resignation on Monday, four days after the state government moved him from Sagar to the police headquarters as assistant inspector general. The transfer order was issued on October 27 as part of a reshuffle involving the collectors and superintendents of police of Sagar and Dewas districts.
The resignation follows the Banda hooch tragedy in Sagar district, in which at least 16 deaths were officially confirmed after victims consumed illegally manufactured poisonous liquor. The incident triggered a major police investigation and exposed an alleged illicit liquor manufacturing and distribution network in the district.
The Times of India reported that Sujania was said to be upset by the sudden transfer. The officer could not be contacted for his version, while sources in the police establishment told the newspaper that the transfer had not gone down well with him. The source did not report the reasons stated in Sujania’s resignation.
The state government transferred both the Sagar district collector and the SP after the deaths. Sujania was replaced as Sagar SP by Sanjeev Kumar Sinha. The administrative changes came as questions were raised over enforcement against illegal liquor production and distribution, as well as supervisory oversight before the tragedy.
The officially confirmed death toll is at least 16, according to the report. Unofficial estimates cited by the newspaper put the toll at around 36, although that higher figure has not been officially confirmed in the supplied material. The difference illustrates the continuing uncertainty around the full human cost of the incident.
The case has therefore become both a criminal investigation and an administrative accountability test. The reported resignation adds a new development to the handling of the probe, but the supplied report does not establish whether it will alter the investigation’s legal course or identify any official findings against individual officers.
Sujania is a 2014-batch Indian Police Service officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre and is originally from Rajasthan. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs’ IPS Civil List, he holds an MTech degree and joined the IPS on December 2, 2014. He was confirmed in service in December 2017 and has served as SP in Tikamgarh, Mandsaur, Morena and Sagar.
Sanjeev Kumar Sinha has taken over as Sagar SP, while the state police and administration continue to deal with the investigation and the fallout from the liquor deaths. The next formal developments will depend on the government’s handling of the resignation and the progress of the ongoing probe.
