Deoria martyr’s wife stops funeral till midnight

GORAKHPUR: Poignant scenes were witnessed amid cries for revenge at Jaidev Chapia village in Deoria on Saturday, when the wife of martyr Vijay Maurya refused to part with her husband’s mortal remains till chief minister Yogi Adityanath visited the family. Yogi’s two senior cabinet colleagues Anupama Jaiswal and Surya Pratap Shahi spent several hours trying to convince the martyr’s wife, Laxmi Maurya, to allow cremation.

“How will I feed my son after my husband’s death,” she said.
Tensions ran high in the village soon after the coffin arrived in the afternoon.

It was well past 11.30pm when the body was finally taken out of the house for last rites after the district administration assured Laxmi that her demands would be met. “The family wanted a park to be named after Martyr Vijay Maurya and pucca roads be laid in the village,” district magistrate, Deoria, Amit Kishore to TOI.
He said, the family has been handed over a cheque of Rs 25 lakh as ex gratia relief and will get an additional Rs 10 lakh from singer Kailash Kher, who was scheduled to perform at Deoria Mahotsava that has now been cancelled. “On her demand for a gas station, the family has been told about the criteria for a permit,” he said. Talking to TOI, commissioner, Gorakhpour division, Amit Gupta, said, “Senior officials convinced the family that she would be able to meet the CM in the next few days.”