PATNA: Family members of a migrant labourer who died in Bastar praised Chhattisgarh police for arranging a funeral of a labourer who died of malaria and dengue. He was cremated as per Hindu rituals by the officers of Bastar police on Saturday at Jagdalpur, district headquarters of Bastar.
Naresh Kumar, who lives in Rupspur village under Harnaut police station in Nalanda district, informed the Bastar police about the death of his son, Ranbir Kumar at MPM hospital in Jagdalpur on Friday. He was admitted on April 21 for the treatment of malaria and dengue. Earlier, he was admitted to Dimrapal government hospital in Sukma district.
Ranbir worked as a supervisor in a private organisation entrusted with the task of construction of shelter schools (Pota Cabins) for tribal students in the Naxalite affected areas of Sukma. These structures are being constructed to facilitate the education of children in the villages where school buildings were burnt down by the Maoists. It may be recalled the then district magistrate of Sukma, Alex Menon was kidnapped by the Maoists a couple of years back.
According to Vivek Shukla, city SP, on the instructions of the SP of Bastar, the funeral was arranged by the police in consultation with his relatives who expressed their unwillingness to come to Jagdalpur due to the lockdown. With the assistance of the junior chamber of commerce of Bastar, materials were arranged and cremation was took place at Jagdalpur crematorium. In presence of police officers, the local CSP, Hemsagar Sedar, lit the funeral pyre, generally done by the son of the deceased according to Hindu traditions. The entire cremation proceedings were shown live to Ranbir’s family members in Nalanda, 60 km from here.
Police inspectors, Rajesh Marai and Dhananjay Sinha participated as pallbearers along with other policemen.
