6 policemen suspended in Tonk's tractor driver death case; victim's body handed over to kin

Six policemen, including a station house officer, were suspended on Tuesday for allegedly thrashing a tractor driver fatally in Rajasthan's Tonk district on May 28, a senior police officer said. Uniara Police Station in-charge Manish Charan, head constable Rajesh and constables Bhagwan Gurjar, Sanwara Jat, Ramavtar and Lakshmi Chand were suspended, Tonk district SP Chunaram Jat told PTI.

An FIR with murder charges was lodged against them on Monday night. On Tuesday, the body of 30-year-old Bhajanlal was handed over to his family members on Tuesday after an autopsy by a medical board.

The post-mortem was conducted a week later as the victim's kin, led by ruling Congress MLA and former DGP Harish Meena and opposition BJP MLA Gopi Chand Meena, were holding a protest. They were demanding a government job for the driver's kin, Rs 25 lakh compensation, lodging murder cases against the policemen, their suspension and a CID probe.

Last Tuesday, Bhajanlal, was allegedly transporting gravel and bajri illegally when the police gave him a chase in Laxmipura under Nagar fort police station area. On Wednesday, the two legislators began a dharna, alleging that Bhajanlal was beaten to death by the policemen. Police had, however, said it was a case of accidental death as the driver had jumped off the tractor.

Congress MLA Harish Meena, who represents Deoli-Uniara constituency of Tonk district, began the dharna in Nagar fort with his demands and he was later joined by BJP Jahazpur MLA Gopi Chand Meena. They converted their dharna into an indefinite hunger strike on Saturday after their demands were not met.

Earlier, Tonk collector RC Dhenwal had announced a compensation of Rs 13 lakh to the family of the deceased. He had also said murder charges would be slapped against the accused policemen and a CID probe would be carried out in the matter.

Following the state government's assurances, the two lawmakers had called off their protest on Monday. However, they had restarted their dharna on Tuesday, accusing the administration of changing the members of a medical board conducting the post-mortem of the body. This prompted Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot to intervene. Pilot visited the dharna site in Tonk in the afternoon and gave necessary directions to officials.

"The medical board was changed today. We objected and restarted our dharna. After the intervention of the deputy CM, the board which was decided last night conducted the post-mortem and the body was handed over to family members for the funeral," BJP MLA Gopi Chand Meena said. He added that the dharna has been called off.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)