02/09/2026
| 14 years. Three young lives lost. And a case that is still not fully resolved. In September 2012, violence during the Tarnetar fair in Thangadh, Gujarat, escalated into police firing. Pankaj Sumra, 16, Prakash Parmar, 26, and Mehul Rathod, 17, were killed.
Over the years, the case went through a CID investigation, arrests, a government-ordered inquiry and, later, an SIT investigation. Yet the three deaths did not receive the same legal outcome. The case concerning Pankaj's death is still before the district court, while no chargesheets were filed in the cases concerning Mehul and Prakash, according to the latest reporting.
The government-ordered Sanjay Prasad inquiry report, submitted in 2013, also remains undisclosed.
Now, 14 years later, Pankaj's father Amarshi Sumra, 53, has died near the same area where his son was killed. Police registered an Accidental Death Report, while his family has linked his death to the grief and frustration surrounding the unresolved case.
His death has brought the Thangadh firing back into focus—and with it, a question that has remained for 14 years: When will the families get all the answers?
