JMM founding member Simon Marandi laid to rest; COVID protocol violated at funeral in CM presence

(Eds: Fixing typo in intro) Pakur (Jharkhand), Apr 14 (PTI)Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren attended funeral of JMM founding member Simon Marandi in his native Dumaria village of Pakur district on Wednesday, but during the event COVID protocol was blatantly flouted.

People in thousands gathered at the last rites function of Marandi in violation of guidelines in force since April 6 for the virus restricting number of participants on such occasion.

At a high-level committee meeting chaired by the chief minister on April 6 it was decided that not more than 50 people should attend last rites and limiting number of people participating in a marriage function to 200.

Marandi (73) had died at a Kolkata hospital on Monday after an illness.

He had served as MLA for five times and represented Rajmahal Lok Sabha seat on JMM ticket twice.

The chief minister paid tribute to the departed leader.

''I have lost a guardian and a 'margdarshak' (guide) in passing away of Simon Dada,'' Soren said.

The deceased MLA son Dinesh William Marandi laid him to rest.

Assembly Speaker Ravindranath Mahata and state BJP spokesman Shivpujan Pathak condoled death of the veteran leader.

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