Chandigarh/Sangrur, Oct. 3 -- The BJP on Friday demanded justice for the family of a 23-year-old Dalit youth who allegedly died by suicide in Sangrur on September 25, alleging that police cremated his body without the presence or consent of his family. Punjab BJP chief Kewal Singh Dhillon also alleged that the youth's mother was taken into custody and demanded a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the cremation. Addressing a press conference in Chandigarh with the youth's father, brother and a cousin, Dhillon said the incident reflected the deteriorating law-and-order situation in Punjab and that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had failed to protect the rights of Dalit families. He alleged that the village sarpanch, who has been booked for abetting suicide, was close to AAP minister Aman Arora. The youth's family alleged that the cremation was conducted on Thursday without them. They performed the post-death rituals on Friday after the relatives were released. The family had been protesting outside the Sangrur civil hospital mortuary, demanding the arrest of the sarpanch and three others booked on September 28 for abetment of suicide. They have also sought the addition of provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, alleging threats and casteist abuse. Police arrested Congress leader Rajinder Deepa and the youth's three relatives on Thursday for obstructing the police during a standoff over the victim's cremation and detained other relatives, including the mother and grandfather, as a preventive measure. The DSP said on Friday that those held preventively had been released Police refuted the family's allegations, stating that the cremation was carried out after the hospital informed them that the body had begun decomposing and the family repeatedly refused to proceed with the post-mortem. Congress leader Raj Kumar Verka also met the victim's family, including his mother and grandfather, after their release from preventive custody. Verka said this was the third incident in a single month involving the torture of underprivileged individuals in Sangrur, adding that the party would approach the Punjab and Haryana high court and the State Human Rights Commission over the matter. Leader of Opposition Partap Bajwa alleged on social media that Rajinder Deepa, currently lodged in Patiala jail, was being prevented from meeting him. He accused the Punjab government of restricting democratic freedoms and questioned the circumstances surrounding Deepa's arrest....