Ranchi/Jamshedpur, June 10: The state government today suspended Rajnagar circle officer and officers in charge of three police stations for dereliction of duty in connection with the May 18 lynchings that claimed seven lives at Rajnagar and Bagbera in adjoining districts of Seraikela-Kharsawan and East Singhbhum.

Based on the findings of a high-level probe committee, the chief minister's office issued orders to suspend Rajnagar circle officer Rajeev Neeraj and OCs K.N. Ojha (Kowali), Budhram Oraon (Mango) and Jitender Thakur (Azadnagar).

Seraikela SDPO Ajit Kumar, Dhalbhum SDO Manoj Kumar Ranjan and Mango Notified Area Committee (MNAC) special officer Jagadish Prasad Yadav were transferred with immediate effect. Departmental proceedings would also be initiated against hem.

Principal secretary S.K.G. Rahate said the action was being taken on the basis of a 270-page report submitted by a two-member probe team, comprising Kolhan commissioner Pradeep Kumar and DIG Prabhat Kumar, on Wednesday.

The OCs of Rajnagar and Bagbera had been suspended earlier for the mob attacks that killed four cattle traders and three others purportedly over child-kidnap rumours circulating over social media, which criminal elements used to their advantage.

Yesterday, Seraikela-Kharsawan DC Ramesh Gorakh Gholap and SP Rakesh Bansal were suspended by chief minister Das with immediate effect after the probe report pointed to a lack of coordination between the two in Rajnagar block where the four Muslim cattle traders were chased and lynched at villages over suspicion that they were trading in beef.

The SP, the report added, reached the spot more than five hours late even though it was barely 25km from the district headquarters.

Three of the victims were from Haldipokhar under Kowali police station in Potka block. The fourth victim was from Ghatshila.

Sources in the state home department claimed the probe team had also recommended strict action against Dhalbhum SDO Manoj Kumar Ranjan, Potka BDO Prabhat Chandra Das, Rajnagar BDO Santosh Kumar Prajapati, Potka circle officer Dwarika Baitha and Rajnagar circle officer Rajiv Niraj for dereliction of duty.

The report said that Potka BDO, circle officer and Kowali OC had overlooked the illegal sale of beef at Haldipokhar despite a blanket ban across the state. The Rajnagar BDO and circle officer, who were sent as magistrates to Shobhapur in Rajnagar, remained mute spectators to the lynching.

The three Bagbera victims in adjoining East Singhbhum district were Hindu boys from Jugslai in Jamshedpur and were the target of tribal land brokers, the probe report has suggested.

On the Bagbera killings, the report said, "SDO Dhalbhum, who doubles up as the deputy collector of land reforms, was ignorant of the illegal land deals on raiyat land at Nagadih, which was the main reason behind the lynching of three youths (including two brothers Vikas and Gautam Verma) and also showed delayed response in preventing violence at Mango."

The report also sought the suspension of MNAC special officer Yadav for his inability to control the violence that erupted in Jamshedpur when a protest march was taken out on May 20, two days after the mob attacks.

Recommending that an FIR be lodged against him for alleged links with senior functionaries of Muslim Ekta Manch (MEM) that took out the march that day, the report criticised his decision to send an MNAC officer to accept a memorandum from them when they had gathered at Gandhi Maidan without permission.

The report, the home department sources said, also provides instances when Yadav cleared plans of illegal apartments built on government and forest land in Mango by some members of the manch.

"It was not only dereliction of duty but also criminal offence on the part of a government officer to connive with people of an organisation and sell government land," the probe report stated.

Sources in the home department revealed that the probe team had made scathing remarks against SSP Anoop T. Mathew for reaching Nagadih village in Bagbera at 10pm, long after the angry mob had killed three youths. However, the steps taken by the SSP and his fellow officers to prevent an inter-community flare-up in Mango seems to have gone in his favour.

Among police officers, the probe team sought action against were DSP headquarters-I K.N. Mishra (Mango is under his jurisdiction), Mango OC Budhram Oraon, Azadnagar OC Jitender Thakur and Kowali OC K.N. Ojha.