Madhya Pradesh IPS officer Anurag Sujania has submitted his resignation from police service, seven days after he was removed as Sagar Superintendent of Police following deaths linked to poisonous liquor in the district. The resignation has not been accepted yet, and he stays in service until it is.

Sujania, a 2014-batch officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre, was transferred to police headquarters on October 27. Seven days later, he handed in his papers. In the resignation, he cited personal reasons and the opportunity of a new job.

The application will move from the administration branch of police headquarters to the Home Department. After that, the state government and the Department of Personnel and Training at the Centre will carry the process forward. Until the resignation is accepted, Sujania remains an officer of the force.

A second removal after a liquor tragedy

This is not the first time Sujania has been pulled off a district post after a hooch tragedy. In January 2021, when he was SP of Morena, more than 24 people died after consuming poisonous liquor. The government of then chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan removed him and the district collector from their posts.

He then spent time at police headquarters. A few months before the latest deaths in Sagar, he was given charge of the district as SP. The Sagar tragedy led to his transfer on October 27, and he was given the responsibility of AIG at police headquarters.

That detail is what has people talking inside the department. A officer who has been moved twice after liquor deaths, and who now puts in his papers, has raised questions about how he was being treated.

The Sagar connection

Sujania is not the first Sagar SP to walk away from the force after a tragedy in the district. Abhishek Tiwari, a 2013-batch officer, was SP of Sagar in August 2024, when a wall collapsed in Shahpur and killed nine children. He was transferred after that incident.

Tiwari then went on central deputation to Delhi, where he was posted at the National Technical Research Organisation, known as NTRO. In January 2026, at the age of 42, he took voluntary retirement.

So within a short stretch, two officers who held the same district post have left the force after incidents that shook the district. The circumstances and formal procedures of their exits, however, are different.

Two engineers, two transfers

Both officers began their careers with engineering degrees before entering the Indian Police Service through the UPSC examination. The overlap goes further than that.

Sujania, originally from Rajasthan, completed a BTech and an MTech before clearing the UPSC exam and joining the service in 2014. He was allotted the Madhya Pradesh cadre and has served as SP in Mandsaur and other districts of the state.

Tiwari completed a BTech in electronics and later studied at IIM Indore. While serving as SP of Balaghat, he led anti-Naxal operations. For that work, he has been credited with receiving the President’s gallantry medal twice.

Both men were SP of Sagar at different times. Both were moved out of the post after major incidents occurred during their tenure. For readers following the story, that pattern is the detail that makes the two cases hard to separate.

Personal reasons and an opportunity for a new job, cited by Sujania in his resignation, are the only grounds he has put on record.

Frustration, timing and what remains unknown

Reports say the repeated transfers left Sujania hurt, and there is talk within the force that frequent moves weighed on him. But his resignation does not mention the transfer as a reason. He cites personal circumstances and a new job opportunity.

Age is another reason the decision has drawn attention. Sujania is about 38 years old, and roughly 22 years of service remained before his retirement. Leaving with that much service ahead is what has turned a routine resignation into a talking point in the department.

What has not been confirmed is the name of the new job or when the resignation will be formally decided. Until the government and the Centre complete their steps, the outcome stays open.

The Sagar liquor deaths have now been followed by a senior officer’s transfer and a resignation request. Each step is moving through official channels, and the next decision will show whether the state accepts his exit.