Uddhav Thackeray seeks CBI inquiry into Gopinath Munde's accident

MUMBAI: Lakhs of supporters and distraught family members bid an emotional farewell to Gopinath Munde on Wednesday, Bharatiya Janata Party's tallest leader in Maharashtra with a mass connect, who was killed in a car crash in Delhi.

In a departure from tradition, Munde's daughter Pankaja performed the last rites at Parli in Beed district, from where Munde won by a massive margin in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha election. The funeral was marred by skirmishes as hundreds of supporters turned violent after the event.

The funeral took place on the vast ground just outside the sugar mill built by Munde. According to police estimates, over half a million people attended the event in the blazing sun.

The crowd, which had swelled by afternoon, became unruly after the last rites were over, pelting stones at dignitaries demanding an inquiry into Munde's death. They even surrounded the cars of a few state ministers, including chief minister Prithviraj Chavan's, venting their anger.

Matters came to a head when Chavan and other leaders, including Nitin Gadkari, paid their homage to Munde. The police had to resort to a lathi charge to control the angry crowd.

Munde's daughter Pankaja appealed to them to maintain their calm. "We are here to pay our last respects to our beloved leader. We should not spoil it by doing anything disgraceful," she told the crowd over loudspeakers.

Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Prakash Javadekar, Smriti Irani, Maharashtra CM Chavan, Goa CM Manohar Parrikar, Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray and many others were present at the funeral.

Thackeray backed the crowd's demand, calling for a probe into the circumstances leading to Munde's death. "We demand an investigation by the CBI into the accident in Delhi. People are very agitated and we must understand their feelings," he said.