UP soldier's funeral delayed over absence of CM, MP Hema Malini

Mathura: Residents of Jhandipur village in Mathura delayed the funeral procession of Army jawan Bablu Singh, who was killed while thwarting an infiltration bid in Kashmir, protesting the failure of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and local MP Hema Malini to attend the last rites.

Irate locals yesterday also raised slogans against the government and Hema Malini while delaying the last rites of the jawan for about four hours.

The jawan's family members claimed that even after 36 hours of receiving the news that a soldier from Mathura was martyred in Kashmir, the local MP did not contact them or send any representative to meet them.

They also demanded that the family be paid a compensation of Rs. 50 lakh, which is at par with what families of two police officers, who lost their lives during Jawahar Bagh clashes in June, received.

Following the protest, the district authorities met the family members of the jawan and pacified them. The last rites of the jawan were then performed.

District Magistrate Nikhil Chand Shukla said the ex-gratia has been paid to the jawan's family as per the rules.

The district administration has sent the list of demands of jawan's family to the state government, he added. MLC Sanjay Lathar, BJP district chief Chaudhary Tejveer Singh and others had also met the jawan's family and tried to pacify them.

28-year-old Bablu Singh was one of the two soldiers killed in an encounter on July 30 in Naugam sector of Kashmir's Kupwara district that also left two militants dead. Bulandshar native Vishal Choudhary was the other soldier who died in the gunbattle.