Driver's death: R'sthan MLAs relaunch protest, allege changes in medical board

The two rival MLAs, who had held an indefinite hunger strike over the death of a tractor-trailer driver in Rajasthan's Tonk district, relaunched their protest Tuesday, alleging changes in the medical board constituted to conduct an autopsy.

Staging a dharna at Nagar Fort in Tonk, Harsh Meena of the Congress and BJP's Gopichand Meena alleged that members of the board were changed under pressure from the district administration and police.

"We were told yesterday that a medical board will conduct a post-mortem on Tuesday. Today, members of the board were changed under pressure from police. So, we demanded that the members of the board should remain the same," Gopichand Meena said.

"We were again unheard, so we started the dharna," he added.

The autopsy is yet to be conducted.

The MLAs had called off their indefinite strike on Monday night, two days after it was launched, following assurances from Food and Civil Supplies Minister Ramesh Meena that their demands would be accepted.

Tractor-trailer driver Bhajanlal (30) was on his way to Ganeti village on May 28 when he was stopped at Laxmipura by police, who allegedly assaulted him, resulting in his death.

Alleging that Bhajanlal was beaten to death by the policemen, the legislators had begun a dharna last Wednesday, which was converted into an indefinite hunger strike on Saturday.

The MLAs had demanded a government job for the driver's next of kin, Rs 25 lakh compensation, lodging of a murder case against the policemen, their suspension and a CID probe into the matter.

Deputy CM Sachin Pilot will meet the family of the driver and the legislators in Tonk later on Tuesday.