Farmer killed in Lakhimpur violence cremated after 2nd autopsy

Gurvinder Singh alias Gyaniji, 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.

Family members 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 the support from farmer leader Rakesh Tikait and Punjabi singer Sonia Maan.

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 members in 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 will be prepared under the supervision of the experts who conducted the exam, SP Singh said.

District Magistrate Dinesh Chandra Singh said the family members of Gurvinder Singh 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 Singh, 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 not option left but to cremated him," he added.

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

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

Four of the dead were farmers who were allegedly knocked down by vehicles driven by BJP workers.

The four others included two BJP workers, a driver of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra, and Raman Kashyap, a journalist working for a private TV channel.

While the first three were lynched by agitating farmers, the scribe, according to his father, died after being hit by a vehicle when he was covering news of farmers' protest against the visit of UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya to Ajay Mishra's native place.

The UP Police has lodged a case against Union minister Ajay Mishra's son, Ashish Mishra, but no arrest has been made.