Ahmedabad: Amid tight security, the funeral of a 32-year-old man from Patel community, who allegedly died in custody after being caught by police during the quota violence, was held here on Sunday.
The funeral procession of Swetang Patel started from his house in Matrushakti Society of Bapunagar area at around 8.25 AM. Initially, around 300 locals and relatives joined the procession, including Swetang’s mother Prabhaben and his sister Palak.
Before the funeral procession started, former state Home Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Gordhan Jhadafia met Swetang’s family at his house and conveyed his condolences. Local MLA Vallabh Kakadia along with some leaders and corporators also remained present during the procession.
To avoid any untoward situation, around 600 personnel from local police, State Reserve Police (SRP), Rapid Action Force (RAF) and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were stationed along the 1km route from Swetang’s house till the crematorium in Lila Nagar area, Bapunagar police inspector K D Nakum said.
Since early morning, senior police officers including Joint Commissioner of Police (JCP) Manoj Shashidharan, Deputy CP Shweta Shrimali and Assistant CP K D Pandya along with their staff arrived at Bapunagar and supervised the arrangements.
Hardik Patel, the convener of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti, who earlier said that he will remain present during the last rites of Swetang, did not turn up as he flew to Delhi Sunday morning.
As the procession went ahead, a large number of locals living near the route came on the road to pay homage to the deceased. Some of them also joined the procession, taking the total number to more than 1,000.
Since the route passes from NH-8 at Thakkarnagar area, police stopped the traffic for around 20 minutes.
“The procession reached peacefully at the crematorium without any untoward incident. We have not imposed any curfew in that area. Locals have also cooperated and refrained from shouting any inflammatory slogans,” said Nakum.
Since Swetang was the only son of Prabhaben, his sister Palak performed the last rites by lighting his funeral pyre.
—PTI
