Durga’s body at his Bokaro residence. Pix: Pankaj Singh

Bokaro, May 22: Shibu Soren’s eldest son, Durga, was cremated this afternoon at their ancestral village of Nemra, around 50km from here, after a post-mortem revealed that the 39-year-old had died yesterday due to a brain haemorrhage.

Preliminary findings of the autopsy conducted early this morning indicated that the JMM general secretary suffered a “massive intra-cranial haemorrhage leading to brain strain” which caused his death.

Durga, who was suffering from multiple ailments, died in his sleep early on Thursday. He was rushed to the Bokaro General Hospital where he was declared dead.

But since doctors were not clear about the exact cause of death, Soren’s family agreed to an autopsy.

According to sources in the district administration, a team of three doctors, A.K. Singh, Mithilesh and K.K. Sinha performed the post-mortem in the presence of the civil surgeon, Pramod Kumar, at Chas referral hospital around 6am today.

The autopsy report, submitted to deputy commissioner Satyendra Singh, also mentioned that Durga had bruises on the left side of his head and near his left ear, probably a result of a fall.

“The fall coupled with his high blood pressure may have led to the brain haemorrhage,” said a doctor.

The report also mentioned that his left kidney-the right kidney had to be removed in 2001 — was severely damaged. He was suffering from cirrhosis of the liver, had high blood pressure and was diabetic, the report also noted. It was 8.30am by the time the autopsy was completed and Durga’s body brought home where thousands of partymen were waiting along with Shibu Soren and his family.

Soren remained quiet throughout the morning, but broke down once he saw his son’s body being brought in. “God, what will I do now,” he cried out as several party leaders tried their best to console him.Among them were former deputy chief minister Sudhir Mahto, Giridih MP Simon Marandi, senior partyman Simon Marandi and many others.

Around two hours later, Durga’s body, decorated with flowers, was put on an open jeep that led the procession to Nemra where the last rights were performed amid cries of “Durga Soren amar rahen”.