Former Arunachal Pradesh CM Kalikho Pul cremated

Itanagar: Former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Kalikho Pul, who allegedly committed suicide at his official residence, was cremated on Thursday at Hawai in Anjaw district with full state honours.

Several people gathered at the funeral ground to pay their last homage to him before he was cremated as per traditional Mishmi rituals.

The state government had declared state mourning for three days and holiday today as a mark of respect.

BJP and Congress legislators from the state and neighbouring Assam along with BJP state unit president Tapir Gao were present at the cremation.

General Administration department commissioner Hage Kojin and IGP Navin Payeng along with many senior government officials attended the last rites of Pul, official sources from the district said.

Assam PWD Minister Parimal Suklabaidya and the state's MLA Padma Hazarika were present as the emissaries of Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal.

Special prayers for him were offered at Theravada Buddhist Society here.

47-year-old Pul had allegedly committed suicide at the chief minister's official residence here, which he was yet to vacate, on Tuesday, weeks after he was ordered by the Supreme Court to step down on July 13. He had been chief minister for a brief period between February 19 to July 13.

The state government had announced a magisterial inquiry into the death.