Protests precede Anand boy's cremation

Anand, Jan 4 (UNI) Body of the 13-year-old boy, Anil Parmar, who died of severe burn injuries yesterday hours after absolving members of a Patel family whom he had earlier accused of having set him afire, was cremated at his Parvata village in Umreth taluka of this district today.

However, high drama preceded the cremation when several women villagers demanded that Kaushik Patel and two other family members be booked under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.

Unless the members of the Patel family are so booked, the villagers threatened they would take the boy's body to the Patels' residence and keep it there.

The women began to proceed towards the house of the Patels carrying the boy's body with them. However, the police intervened and even resorted to a mild lathi-charge in which three women were injured. Thereafter, the cremation was conducted peacefully at around 1700 hours.

The boy, who died yesterday of burn injuries suffered on Sunday last, had earlier told the police that he had been set afire by members of the Patel family for damaging their crop while chasing a stray kite. However, just a few hours before his death, the boy had retracted the statement, as claimed by the police, and said he had set fire to himself.

UNI