Baraut (Uttar Pradesh), July 22: Tripura Director General of Police (DGP) Anurag Dhankar was cremated with full state honours on Wednesday in his ancestral town of Baraut in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district. His son, Abhishek Dhankar, lit the funeral pyre at the cremation ground near Bawli Chungi on the Delhi-Saharanpur highway after a ceremonial guard of honour was presented to the senior IPS officer.
Dhankar (60) was found dead at the Tripura Police Headquarters in Agartala on Monday. Authorities have said the circumstances appear consistent with suicide, and the matter remains under investigation. He had been promoted from Additional Director General of Police to DGP in May 2025 and was due to retire in about 11 months.
A funeral procession of nearly one kilometre was taken out in Baraut before the last rites, with around 500 people, including police personnel, public representatives and local residents, joining to pay their final respects. Dhankar, a native of Biharipur village in Baghpat district, was brought to his family residence on Gandhi Road shortly after midnight on Tuesday, where a large number of mourners gathered from Wednesday morning.
Senior police and administrative officials, elected representatives and local residents offered floral tributes. Uttar Pradesh Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Social Welfare Asim Arun, a former IPS officer and Dhankar’s batchmate from the 1994 Indian Police Service, attended the funeral and expressed condolences to the bereaved family.
Recalling their long association, Arun said they trained together at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie and the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy in Hyderabad, besides serving together in the United Nations mission in Kosovo.
During his distinguished career, Dhankar led the CBI investigation into the Rs 13,000-crore Punjab National Bank fraud involving Nirav Modi and the reinvestigation of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases. He is survived by his wife and son, who lives in Canada.
