Bahraich farmer cremated after second autopsy
BAHRAICH: Gurvinder Singh, one of the four farmers killed in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence on October 3, was cremated on Wednesday morning after a second autopsy was conducted on him as demanded by his family, police said.
Family members of the 22-year-old, hailing from Moharnia village of Bahraich district, had earlier refused to cremate him, claiming that he was shot dead but the postmortem report had no mention of it. They had received support from farmer leader Rakesh Tikait.
With the Uttar Pradesh government agreeing to their demand, a second post-mortem was conducted on Tuesday night by a team of experts from Lucknow, superintendent of police Sujata Singh said.
Hours after this, Gurvinder Singh was cremated by his family members in his village in the presence of Tikait, ADG (Gorakhpur) Akhil Kumar and senior police and administration officials, additional superintendent of police (Rural) Ashok Kumar said. Farmer leader Tajinder Singh Virk was also present at the funeral. ASP Ashok Kumar said security personnel were deployed in the area as a precautionary measure.
He added that the situation was under control. District magistrate Dinesh Chandra Singh said the family members of Gurvinder Singh had raised objections on the post-mortem done earlier.
“With the permission of the state government, it was done again and videographed as well,” he added.
Sukhvinder Singh, father of Gurvinder Singh, said, “My son is not a victim but a shaheed (martyr).”
Sukhvinder said his son was peacefully participating in the movement when was crushed to death.
He said while the government fulfilled its first promise by providing a cheque for Rs 45 lakh as compensation, no money can compensate the loss but we have no option.
“We hope the second promise of providing a government job would be fulfilled,” he said.
Sukhdev Singh, elder brother of Sukhvinder said, “We are now satisfied with the postmortem done again in Bahraich on our demands.”
He further added how many times would the result be denied.
“When in both post-mortems, doctors say that he was not shot, we had no option left but to cremate him,” Sukhdev Singh added.
Two doctors designated by the family members of Gurvinder were also present during the post-mortem.
Sukhdev said the culprits should be arrested, adding that future strategy would be decided after (daswan) post mourning rituals.
The mortal remains of the three other farmers were cremated at their native places on Tuesday.Eight people were killed in violence during a protest against the farm laws in Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday (October 3).
The UP Police have lodged a case against Union minister Ajay Mishra Teni’s son, Ashish Mishra.