A Congress delegation met Bihar governor Phagu Chauhan on Friday and demanded the removal of chief minister Nitish Kumar over Monday’s alleged police brutality on Durga devotees in Munger town, which left a teenager dead and triggered retaliatory mob violence on Thursday.

“We met the governor and demanded the immediate removal of chief minister Nitish Kumar and deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi,” Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala told reporters.

“They are responsible for the brutal lathi-charge and police firing in Munger. They have pushed the state into anarchy.”

On Monday, a quarrel over the right of way had broken out between the police and devotees carrying the town’s famed Badi Durga idol for immersion.

The police allegedly fired on the crowd, killing 17-year-old Anurag Poddar and setting off a minor stampede, and then caned the crowd, leaving many people with bullet wounds and other injuries. The police have denied firing, saying criminals from within the Puja crowd had fired the shots.

Wednesday’s vote in the town passed peacefully but with no action taken against the police even on Thursday, thousands of angry residents attacked police stations and vehicles and other government buildings.

Subsequently, the Election Commission transferred Munger district magistrate Rajesh Meena and superintendent of police Lipi Singh.

Surjewala said the Congress team had requested the governor to provide a compensation of Rs 50 lakh to Anurag’s family and ensure punishment for the officials involved in Monday’s atrocity.

“The police fired at the people in which a youth was shot in the head and died. Eight others received bullet injures. Several women, children and other people were brutally thrashed,” he said.

He accused the state government of having tried to shield Lipi because she is the daughter of senior JDU leader R.C.P Singh, considered close to Nitish. Meena is believed to have Sushil’s patronage.

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera and Bihar unit president Madan Mohan Jha had accompanied Surjewala to the governor.

Meena’s and Lipi’s replacements, Rachna Patil and M.S. Dhillon, respectively, have held flag marches in Munger, which has been limping back to normality.

An internal report written purportedly by an official of the Central Industrial Security Force, deployed in the town on poll duty and apparently present at the site of Monday’s violence, has been circulated widely on social media.

It says the police had fired in the air after the Durga devotees began throwing stones around 11.45pm on Monday night. This provoked the mob to intensify the stoning.

A CISF head constable then fired 13 rounds from his Insas rifle in the air in self-defence, after which the crowd left, the report says. It does not explain how a young man died and many others received bullet injuries if all the firing was directed at the sky.

Calls to the CISF public relations officer went unanswered.