Slain gangster cremated 20 days after encounter; 1 dead in violence

Yash Goyal

Jaipur, July 13

Gangster Anandpal Singh, who was killed in an exchange of fire with police on June 24, was on Thursday cremated at his native village, Sanvarda, in Nagaur district of Rajasthan during one-hour relaxation in curfew.

One person was killed and 30, including policemen, injured in violence between protesters and police after a condolence meet organised by the Rajput community on Wednesday to pay tribute to Anandpal.

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The deceased was identified as Lalchand of Rohtak, while Jodhpur’s Mahendra, who was seriously injured, was admitted to SMS Hospital in the wee hours of Thursday. 

More than 300 villagers attended the cremation that took place in the evening amidst unprecedented security cover.

The Rajasthan Human Right Commission has order the family of the slain gangster to complete cremation within 24 hours.

Taking a suo motu cognisance, the rights panel had asked the state government that in case the family did not cremate Anandpal, the government should do so without delay.

Around 200 protesters, including top leaders of Rajput community, were detained before the cremation to avoid any untoward incident.

Fugitive Anandpal was killed in a police encounter at Malasar on June 24.

A postmortem was held at Ratangarh Hospital on June 24 and second one, on a court order, on June 30 in Churu district. 

Since then members of the Rajput community were holding protests demanding a CBI probe into the encounter which they called “fake”.

One person was killed and 35 others, including 30 cops, were injured in violence at Sanvarda village on Wednesday.

Indefinite curfew was imposed on Thursday morning in Sanvarda village and adjoining places of Nagaur district, ADGP NRK Reddy said earlier. 

Two hundred protesters, including Rajput leaders, have been arrested, and their role is being examined, he said. 

Thirteen companies of Rajasthan Armed Constabularies and 1,000 cops have been deployed and the situation was under control, the ADGP claimed.

Meanwhile, the railways has cancelled the Ratangarh-Sardarshahar train, partially cancelled the Jodhpur-Hisar train and diverted three others after the agitation led to damage to the track on Sanvarda-Ratangarh-Churu-Bikaner section. 

Protesters snatched an AK-47 rifle and two pistols from guards of Nagaur SP and set afire the SP’s car, the ADGP said.