Farmer killed in Lakhimpur violence cremated after second autopsy

Bahraich, October 6

Gurvinder Singh, one of the four farmers killed in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, was cremated on Wednesday morning after a second autopsy was conducted on him as demanded by his family, police said.

The family of the 22-year-old, hailing from Moharia village of Bahraich district, had earlier refused to cremate him, claiming that he was shot dead but the post-mortem report had no mention of it. They had received support from farmer leader Rakesh Tikait and Punjabi singer Sonia Mann.

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 at 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.

The post-mortem report would be prepared under the supervision of the experts who conducted the examination, SP Singh said.

District Magistrate Dinesh Chandra Singh said the family of Gurvinder 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.

Talking to PTI, Sukhdev Singh, uncle of Gurvinder, said, “Post-mortem was done in front of us and our leaders. At that time doctors told us that Gurvinder was not shot.”

“When in both post-mortems, doctors say that he was not shot, we had no option but to cremate him,” he added.

The mortal remains of the three other farmers were cremated at their native places on Tuesday.

The UP government is facing a massive flak after eight people were killed in violence during a protest against the farm laws in Lakhimpur on Sunday. PTI