Gandhinagar: Rioting over ‘cremation of outsider’

AHMEDABAD: In times of Covid, the decision to cremate the body of a Gandhinagar resident in Pethapur resulted in a complaint of rioting along with other sections of the IPC. The police registered a case against nine people, all residents of Pethapur.
In the complaint lodged with Pethapur police on Sunday, 23-year-old Kinjalba Vaghela stated that Rajni Pandya, a resident of Sector III in Gandhinagar who is a friend of her husband Mahavirsinh Vaghela, called them to inform them of her mother-in-law’s demise.She died of natural causes.
Pandya and Vaghela took the body to Sector-30 crematorium where they were told that they would have to wait. In fact, they were asked to take the body to Pethapur for cremation.
As Mahavirsinh’s elder brother Shailendrasinh ran a transport business in Pethapur, the family decided to take the body to Pethapur. Shailendrasinh, who knew people in the town, also accompanied them for the cremation. After returning from the cremation, Mahavirsinh went for a bath and Shailendrasinh was standing outside the house when Digvijay Vaghela, 30, Narendrasinh alias Jenbha Vaghela, Ajaysinh Vaghela, Vijaysinh Vaghela and five others arrived there on two-wheelers and a car, and began abusing Shailendrasinh and Mahavirsinh. The group was reportedly irked by the cremation of an outsider’s body in Pethapur town. The men were carrying sticks and threatened the two with dire consequences.
When the neighbours intervened, the group left the area, Kinjal told police. She added that the group said they should have been informed before the body was cremated.