Court orders fresh autopsy, govt bans Internet in Churu
Prohibitory orders were imposed and mobile Internet services suspended in in Nagaur and Churu Friday as protests by the Rajput community over the encounter killing of gangster Anandpal Singh spread to several other parts of the state.
The development came even as the government changed the investigating officer in the case and a local court directed police to conduct a fresh post-mortem of the slain gangster.
The case, being probed by Circle Officer, Ratangarh, Narayan Dan, has been handed over to additional superintendent of police Surender Singh.
Earlier in the day, hearing a petition filed by Anandpal’s mother Nirmal Kanwar, additional district judge of Ratangarh (Churu), Jagdish Jyani ordered a fresh post-mortem at an ‘A’ level hospital in compliance of Supreme Court guidelines for police encounters.
“As per the Supreme Court’s guideline, the post-mortem has to be done at a district hospital but the hospital at Ratangarh town where the post-mortem was conducted was not a district hospital,” Kesar Singh Shekhawat, additional SP, Churu, said.
Anandpal, a resident of Sanvarad in Naguar district, was killed in a police encounter on June 24 in Malasar village of Churu district. His family members had refused to take the body and demanded a CBI probe into his killing. The body was kept at the mortuary of the Ratangarh (Churu) Hospital.
Police Friday shifted the body to Churu district hospital where a six-member team of doctors conducted a fresh post-mortem.
Meanwhile, government banned the mobile Internet services and bulk SMS in Nagaur and Churu, a day after Section 144, prohibiting assembly of four or more people in an area, was imposed in Churu and Ladnu sub-divisions. The internet services were banned on the recommendations of the district police following reports about rumours being spread by anti-social elements on social media to disturb communal harmony.
SP, Nagaur, PA Deshmukh said adequate security arrangements have been made in Deedwana and nearby areas to maintain law and order.
In Udaipur, the Shri Rajput Karni Sena burnt an effigy of state home minister Gulab Chand Kataria outside collector’s office.
Kuldeep Singh Pal, state vicepresident of the Sena said: “We know that Anandpal was a wanted criminal, but the state could have chosen another alternate to nab him live instead of killing him in an encounter.”
The government claims that it was an encounter but actually it was a murder and the entire Rajput community condemns it, he added.
The activists also demanded that arrested members of Shravan Singh’s family should be released, properties seized set free and all those who were apprehended by the police under the charge of hindering state action should also be released.