Hathras DM among 16 IAS officers transferred by Uttar Pradesh govt, to be posted in Mirzapur

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday transferred 16 IAS officers, including Hathras District Magistrate Praveen Kumar Laxkar who had hit the headlines after the rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit woman. Laxkar will be the new district magistrate of Mirzapur. Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam Additional MD Ramesh Ranjan will take his place in Hathras, an official spokesman said. Laxkar had come into focus after the Dalit woman was raped by four upper-caste men in Hathras on 14 September. She died on 29 September at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital during treatment. The victim was cremated in the dead of the night near her home on 30 September. Her family alleged they were forced by the local police to hurriedly conduct her last rites. The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court too had expressed concern over the Uttar Pradesh government not taking any action against the DM for the fairness of the probe. Besides Laxar, Gonda District Magistrate Nitin Bansal has been sent to Pratapgarh and Additional CEO of Noida, Shruti, has been made the DM of Balrampur, replacing Krishna Karunesh, who has been posted as the vice-chairman of the Ghaziabad Development Authority, the spokesman said. Prominent among others who have been transferred are Fatehpur DM Sanjiv Singh, who has been shifted to Chandauli in the same capacity, the spokesman added.