Martyr's fasting kin reject offer of meeting with UP CM Yogi

Family members of Sepoy Sudesh Kumar, who was killed last year in firing by Pakistani troops along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir, on Saturday rejected the administration's offer to fix an appointment with the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during his Moradabad visit on Sunday.

The family members on Friday sat on an indefinite fast, demanding the chief minister to pay a visit to their Pansukha Milak village.

Stating that the condition of Kavita Kumari, the widow of Sudesh Kumar was not good, Manoj, the brother of the killed sepoy, said that district unit presidents of the BJP and the SP, Rajesh Singhal and Firoz Khan respectively, also met the family.

"Senior officials, including the SP, the ADM, the SDM and the CO today met us with the offer of fixing an appointment with the Chief Minister during his Moradabad visit tomorrow but we are firm that we will not end our indefinite fast till he visits our village," Manoj said. ADM R P Yadav confirmed that the family was urged to end the fast and told that a meeting of two of them can be fixed with the CM during his visit to Moradabad on Sunday but they have turned it down.

Officials have been directed to arrange for a team of doctors to check the medical condition of the family members on fast. The family members of Sudesh, who laid down his life on October 16, 2016, claimed that despite promises by the BJP leaders, none of them visited the family again.