Jaipur: Around 200 people from the Bagariya community allegedly forced their way into Swami Vivekanand Govt Model School in Dudu and cremated the body of a 20-year-old boy from nearby Mal ki Dhani village, police and school authorities said Monday.The bizarre incident occurred Sunday afternoon when the CBSE-affiliated school was closed. The campus was empty except for a security guard.Principal Sarita Meena said, “We are not aware why those people chose the school premises for the cremation.”The school guard called Principal Meena around 2 pm to report that a large group had forcibly entered the premises. “I immediately called the Dudu police station SHO but by the time policemen reached, the crowd had already lit the pyre. This is the first such incident that has happened in the school in 18 years. Everything happened within minutes,” Meena said. Bagariya community members allegedly brought the body and firewood in a tractor-trolley.Meena said the campus is surrounded by an eight-foot-high boundary wall with two gates, and alleged that the lock of one gate was broken. She said the group entered despite objections from school guard Jagdish Gurjar. The FIR states the body and firewood were brought in a tractor-trolley. She added that the incident compromised campus security and could harm the school’s reputation. The govt school has around 750 students.Dudu councillor Kaluram Bagariya said the premises have ‘chhatris’ (memorial structures) of the Bagariya community, a semi-nomadic indigenous people, dating back about 100 years, and that the site was used as a cremation ground for generations before the school boundary wall was built. He said five to seven old chhatris remain inside the campus.The councillor said community members wanted the cremation performed at the same location where the boy’s grandparents were cremated in 2017 but conceded that entering the school and conducting the cremation was wrong. “This was a mistake on behalf of the community and it should not happen again,” he said. He also claimed there was no intimidation of the guard and that the gate was not locked.The school principal said she informed the police and wrote to the local SDM, ADM and chairperson of Dudu Municipal Board.Dudu police station SHO Sanjay Sharma told TOI, “We have registered an FIR against unidentified people and initiated investigation.”
