The investigation of the case of slapping SDM Amit Chaudhary by independent candidate Naresh Meena during the Deoli-Uniara assembly byelection of Tonk will now be conducted by the divisional commissioner. The state government will also compensate the loss suffered by the villagers during the incident. This consensus was reached in the talks held between Home Minister Jawahar Singh Bedam, Cabinet Minister Kirodi Lal Meena, Cabinet Minister Kanhaiyalal Chaudhary and the delegation of nearby villagers including Samravata.
Along with this, consensus has also been reached to remove five gram panchayats including Samravata from Deoli subdivision and include them in Uniara subdivision. However, amidst this consensus, the villagers first expressed displeasure over the investigation with the divisional commissioner and called the talks a failure. During the talks, Kirodi Lal Meena expressed anger towards the delegation accompanying him.
He said, ‘Why are you people giving statements by changing them? Now I will not go to the Chief Minister.’
However, later Kirodi Lal Meena went to meet the Chief Minister with the villagers. On his advice, the villagers agreed to the investigation by the divisional commissioner level and left to meet the Chief Minister.
Kirodi Lal Meena reacts angrily to villagers’ disagreement
When the villagers said that the talks were unsuccessful, Kirodi Lal Meena said, “Now I will not go to the Chief Minister. Go to Gehlot, Dotasara and Pilot. If they get the Collector-SP arrested, then come back and correct your statement. Now you people are saying that you do not agree. If you people did not agree then why did you say yes?”
Kirodi Lal Meena criticises previous govt
Cabinet Minister Kirori Lal Meena targeted the previous Gehlot government over the incident in Deoli-Uniara and said that what happened during the byelection was an outrage over the decisions taken during the Congress government. He said that the villagers are dissastisfied with the districts created by the Congress government without thinking. The main demand of the delegation that met today was to remove five gram panchayats from the Deoli subdivision headquarters and include them in the Uniara subdivision, because the distance from their village to Deoli is very high, while Uniara is very close to them.
On November 13, voting in the byelection for Samravata (Tonk) village of Deoli-Uniara assembly was boycotted. Naresh Meena staged a sit-in with villagers, accusing officials of pressuring him to vote. As tensions rose, Naresh Meena attempted to enter the polling booth and later slapped SDM Amit Chaudhary. After polling concluded, a chaotic situation unfolded as polling parties left, and police vehicles and jeeps were damaged. Around 9:30 pm, the police detained Meena, prompting his supporters to escalate the situation. Hundreds of villagers surrounded the police, freed Meena, and took him away. In response, the police used lathi charge, but Meena’s supporters retaliated by throwing stones and setting fire to vehicles.