Farmers Movement Archive

Lakhimpur violence: Farmer’s kin cremate body after 2nd autopsy

The body of Gurvinder Singh, one of the four farmers killed in Lakhimpur Kheri violence, was cremated on Wednesday morning in Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh following the completion of a second post-mortem examination as per the demand of the family, officials said.With this, the bodies of all the four farmers who died in the incident have been cremated, officials said.Rakesh Tikait, who reached Bahriach late on Tuesday evening after the Gurvinder’s family refused to cremate the body unless a second post-mortem was done, spent the night with the family and demanded the arrest of Ashish Mishra, the son of Union minister of state for home Ajay Kumar Mishra.Farmers have alleged the vehicles of convoy that crushed four famers on October 2 belonged to Union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra and son Ashish Mishra. The minister and his son have denied involvement. However, the police have registered a case against Ashish Mishra but no arrests have been made so far.Families of Daljeet (42) and Gurvinder (22), both Bahraich residents killed in Lakhimpur violence, had initially declined to cremate the bodies on Monday night but Daljeet’s family relented on Tuesday following the district administration’s effort to convince them. Upon Gurvinder’s family’s insistence on a second post-mortem, alleging the first one tried to hide a bullet injury that they claimed caused his death, the administration agreed.The second post-mortem was done early on Wednesday morning with a panel of doctors from Lucknow observing the process. Besides, the panel of doctors from Lucknow, two local doctors designated by family members were also present. This second post-mortem examination happened at 4 am on Wednesday at the Bhariach medical college and the cremation was done at the family’s agriculture field in the Mohraniya village.Sukhdev Singh, the elder brother of Sukhvinder said: “We were satisfied with the second post-mortem in Bahraich on our demand (the first one was done in Lakhimpur Kheri).But our biggest demand is not fulfilled yet. The demand is the justice for Gurvinder. The culprits should be arrested and punished”.Sukhvinder Singh, the father of Gurvinder Singh said: “My son is not deceased. He is a ‘Shaheed’ (martyr) who was killed in Lakhimpur violence while he was fighting for a cause. He was peacefully participating in the movement when he was crushed to death. So don’t call him a victim, call him a martyr.”Sukhvinder said the government had fulfilled its first promise by providing a cheque of ₹45 lakh as compensation. “However, no money can compensate the loss but we have no option. Everyone has to depart when the time comes but the untimely and unexpected demise of my son hurts. I hope the government would fulfil the other promise of providing a government job to a family member”.Family members of two other deceased farmers, Lovepreet Singh and Nachhatar Singh, who had initially refused to perform the last rites alleging that the administration may tamper with the post-mortem reports after the cremation, too had cremated the bodies on Tuesday in Lakhimpur Kheri.While the cremations of the four farmers happened on Tuesday and Wednesday, the other four Shyam Sundar (BJP worker), Shubham Mishra (BJP worker) and Hariom Mishra (driver) were performed in their respective villages on Monday morning. And local journalist Raman Kashyap’s body was cremated on Monday afternoon.

Hindustan Times

07-10-2021

India