NEW DELHI, Aug 20: Tension prevailed in Udaipur in Rajasthan after the teenage boy who was stabbed in a government school allegedly by his classmate belonging to another community, died and was cremated amid tight security on Tuesday.
The city, which witnessed communal violence on August 16 after the stabbing incident, was in the grip of tension, with educational institutions remaining closed and a ban imposed on mobile Internet still continuing.
The body of the 15-year-old boy, Devraj, was handed over to his family after the post-mortem early on Tuesday, following which it was taken to the cremation ground in Ashok Nagar. Devraj succumbed to his injuries on Monday after battling for life for four days in the intensive care unit of Maharana Bhupal Government Hospital, where a team of specialist doctors from Jaipur monitored his treatment. More pathetically, the boy died hours after his sister tied rakhi on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan on Monday.
A student of Class 10 at the Government Senior Secondary School in Udaipur’s Bhatiyani Chauhatta locality, who allegedly stabbed Devraj with a knife, has since been detained under the Juvenile Justice Act, and the rented house in which his family lived, stated to be constructed illegally on the Forest Department’s land, demolished.
A large number of people joined Devraj’s funeral procession, which started from his house in the morning amid tight security. Senior district administration and police officials accompanied the procession. People raised slogans demanding justice for the family in the procession and during the last rites.
Devraj’s father and cousin performed the rituals of cremation. Amid the communal tension continuing in the city, prohibitory orders banning the assembly of people remained in force and a huge police force was deployed on all major roads and at sensitive locations.
(Manas Dasgupta)
