The Madhya Pradesh government has cracked the whip and suspended 21 officials, including Datia Collector Sanket Bhondve, SP Chandrashekhar Solanki, Seondha SDM Mahip Tejawsi and SDPO BN Basave for dereliction of duty in connection with the Ratangarh temple stampede, which claimed 115 lives.

The decision to suspend the top-level officials and other officers, was taken after getting the green signal from the Election Commission (EC). Director, Skill Development, Jabalpur, M R Raghuraj and AIG (HQ) R K Marathe were posted as the new collector and SP respectively.

Similarly, Additional Municipal Commissioner M L Daulatani and DSP (EOW) M P Sharma were posted as the new SDM and SDOP respectively.

Political blame game has already begun over the tragedy, with the Congress accusing the BJP government of suppressing the facts with the claim death toll has crossed 200. However, CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan has denied the charges. Meanwhile, the cops posted at the temple have rubbished the allegations that they had thrown the dead and injured into the river.