Guna: Three police personnel were shot dead by black buck poachers in Saga Barkheda village of Aron region in Guna district in Madhya Pradesh. One accused Naushad was killed in the same encounter, while another criminal Shahjad Khan was gunned down in another encounter with cops on Saturday afternoon.

The incident occurred under the precincts of Aron police station, when the policemen had gone to nab the poachers after receiving a tip-off. The deceased have been identified as Sub-inspector Rajkumar Jatav, 27 and constables, Neeraj Bhargava, 38, and Santram Meena, 27.

Soon after the information reached Bhopal, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan conducted a high-level meeting at around 10 am and gave directives to take stern action against the culprits. By the afternoon, the police and administration had identified all the accused that were from nearby villages and bulldozed the houses of two of them.

Inspector general of Gwalior Anil Sharma has been removed from the post, as he had not reached the scene of crime even after 12 hours. He has been replaced by D Srinivas Varma. Ironically, Varma was posted as Gwalior IG few months ago, but due to strong opposition by a Union Minister, he was not allowed to join and under pressure, Amil Sharma was posted there.