Kochi, March 26

Home Minister Rajnath Singh today assured Lok Sabha MP K C Venugopal that CRPF would hold an inquiry into the alleged disrespect shown by the paramilitary force to the body of one of its jawans, who died in Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh.The Alappuzha MP told PTI that the body of Anil, hailing from Harippad in the district, “was treated with utmost disrespect by the CRPF authorities.””Anil, a native of Chingoli panchayat, died in a drowning accident on Thursday at Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh. But when the body reached Alappuzha, it was found naked, not embalmed and covered in a plastic sheet,” he said.His shocked relatives protested and refused to receive it.Local police then took the body and kept it at the mortuary of a nearby hospital for autopsy.Venugopal said he wrote to Rajnath Singh and Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, seeking an inquiry into the ‘disrespect’ shown by CRPF authorities.”The Home Minister telephoned me today. He told me that he has directed the CRPF Director General to conduct an inquiry into the incident,” Venugopal said.He said Anil’s agitated relatives were pacified after the Home Minister’s assurance and received the body for cremation.”As a civilised society, it is a common gesture that the body of a person be treated with utmost respect and dignity,” he said.He said those responsible for the ‘disrespect’ must be severely punished. — PTI