Missing Zirakpur youth cremated as unclaimed person

ZIRAKPUR: Nearly three weeks on, the family and relatives of 20-year-old Aditya Kumar, who allegedly went missing from Zirakpur, were in for a shock when they came to know from the Zirakpur police that Aditya had been cremated as an unclaimed person by the Panipat police after his body was fished out from a canal near Panipat on June 27.

Anil Kumar shows the belongings of his deceased son, Aditya, at Zirakpur.

Satinder Pal Singh

Zirakpur, July 11

Nearly three weeks on, the family and relatives of 20-year-old Aditya Kumar, who allegedly went missing from Zirakpur, were in for a shock when they came to know from the Zirakpur police that Aditya had been cremated as an unclaimed person by the Panipat police after his body was fished out from a canal near Panipat on June 27.

With no documents to identify the body and no one claiming it, the Panipat police cremated it even as Aditya’s family members kept doing the rounds of the Zirakpur police station in search of their missing son.

According to sources, Aditya had gone missing from Zirakpur on June 22. His body was fished out from a canal near Panipat on June 27. The victim’s hapless father, Anil Kumar (47), kept doing the rounds of the Zirakpur police station requesting to police to help trace his son.

It was only on Tuesday night that Aditya’s family came to know that their missing son had been murdered and his body fished out from a canal falling under the jurisdiction of Sadar police station, Panipat. Aditya was cremated as an unclaimed person on July 3 by the Panipat police after a postmortem.

The family of the deceased could not get the custody of his body as the police had already conducted the last rites after his body remained unclaimed for five days.

Anil Kumar, who last contacted Aditya on June 21, was struggling to come to terms with the fact that he could not even perform the last rites of his son. “We went to the Zirakpur police station on Tuesday night and the SHO told us that Aditya’s body was recovered on June 27 from a canal by the Panipat police,” said the deceased’s father.

Anil Kumar realised that it was their son when he saw the photograph of the body only to be told by the SHO that he had already been cremated.

Anil, who had come all the way from his native place, Yamunanagar, in search of his missing son, is in shock.

The family members of the deceased had alleged that there were serious lapses on the part of the police stating that details of the abduction complaint were not shared by them with their counterparts in Haryana. “Due to police negligence, the body could not be claimed on time. We could have at least performed the last rites of our son,” said Anil Kumar. The family has now demanded that the killers of their son should be arrested.

Dinesh Kumar, investigating officer, Panipat Sadar police station, said the police got information about the body on June 26 late in the evening and it was fished out the next day. The IO said the post-mortem was conducted on June 27. After waiting for over five days, the police cremated Aditya on July 3. The incident came to light when the police rounded up one of the suspects, Amrit, here on Tuesday night, who confessed that Aditya was murdered in Zirakpur and his body thrown into a canal near Karnal on June 24. On Tuesday, the family members reached the Zirakpur police station, where they were informed about the cremation and shown Aditya’s chain and a “kara”. The police have formed teams and raids are being conducted to arrest the other accused.