The body of R. Jaganathan of Kalipalayam, who was run over by a truck belonging to a stone quarry, allegedly for exposing its illegal functioning, was cremated at an electric crematorium at Palamapuram here on Wednesday amid tight security.
After securing the signature of Revathy, the wife of the murdered activist, the police, accompanied by a few relatives of the deceased, took the body from the mortuary and transported it directly to the crematorium in the evening.
Revathy had refused to accept the body of her husband from the mortuary, demanding a free and fair investigation into the murder and ₹1 crore as compensation.
The police and the revenue officials had held several rounds of negotiations with Revathy and the protesters and activists since Sunday. The police were said to have obtained her consent when she went to meet Collector T. Prabhushankar to present a petition, seeking re-autopsy. The Collector rejected her request saying the standard procedure had been complied with.
Ahead of handing over the body of Jaganathan, the police arrested R. S. Mugilan, convenor, of Tamil Nadu Environmental Protection Movement and a few others.
P. Gunasekaran, general secretary, Samaniya Makkal Katchi, claimed that Ms. Revathy was coerced to give her consent to accept the body. She was not allowed to act independently, he charged.
