The media widely reported that Gujarat government Fisheries Director Nitin Sangwan (IAS:2016:GJ) was held hostage during a visit to a village near the Dharoi dam in the Sabarkantha district of the state. There are even reports of the officer being beaten up by men associated with fishing activities. The report turned out to be incorrect, and a clarification was issued.
The IAS officer himself clarified, “The incident is highly over-reported in media. I had gone for an inspection and the parties (beneficiaries of scheme, mainly tribal) were dead drunk on the occasion of Holi i.e March 6. There were gross irregularities in the implementation of a scheme. The drunk and panicked scheme beneficiaries over-reacted. Everything is OK and incident is two days old. And there was no hospitalization as wrongly reported by some media, nor there was any ‘thrashing’.”
IAS officer Sangwan and his team went to Ambavada village near the Dharoi dam on the Sabarmati river to inspect a fisheries project where local contractors receive subsidies to start cage culture fishing in the dam’s water.
As per the FIR, it is alleged that one of the fishing contractors and a key accused in the case, started arguing with Sangwan upon getting a hint that the bureaucrat had caught his wrongdoings and may take legal action against him. As a result, the accused called his group of men together and thrashed them.
Police have already arrested three persons for their alleged involvement in the attack and efforts were on to identify and nab the other accused.
Also Read: Gujarat: IAS officer held hostage, beaten up by men during inspection
