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EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
SURAT, Sept 16: Amidst visible tension, and a huge police bandobast, the funeral of Asif Siddique Memon alias Asif Amdawadi was conducted on Thursday evening in a cemetery at Soni Falia. Only a handful of persons -- family members and close friends -- were allowed by the police to accompany the dead body for the final rites.
The funeral, which was to be held at 2 pm, was finally conducted around 6 pm in the evening following incidences of violence outside Amdawadi's house at Daata Apartments, Bhagatalav. About 50 people accompanied the dead body to the cemetery amidst heavy police presence and buried the body to the recitation of holy verses from the Koran.
Earlier, taking no chances, additional commissioner of police H P Singh, DCP K K Ojha, ACP I C Raj and others met leaders of the community Salim Supariwala and Iqbal Bombaywala, who assured the police that other than family members, only a handful of people would accompany the body.
Hajra Bibi, Amdawadi's mother, was heard wailing, ``You have killed my son, you have killed him by treachery.'' Police sources confirmed that Asif had called her around 4 pm on Wednesday afternoon and told her he was all right.
The last rites of Chhota Rajan gangster Dilip Maratha were conducted at Navsari around 5 pm today evening, the Navsari police informed. The funeral passed off peacefully, with no untoward incident reported during the cremation, the Jalalpore police of Navsari said.
Maratha, the police said, was gunned down when Amdawadi and his associates opened fire on a police escort accompanying him. Maratha took three bullets and succumbed immediately. His body was taken from the New Civil Hospital, after a post mortem, by his father Shankar Kadam and son Viral, who currently reside at Navsari. Maratha's wife is also in Navsari itself, the police added. About 200 people took part in the cremation.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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This story was printed from Net Express located at http://www.expressindia.com. Net Express provides a portal to India, with news from The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with sites on travel and tourism, the entertainment industry, the power sector, the environment and much more.
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