Punjab Education Minister Surjit Singh Rakhra kicked up a row over his comments on the death of the teenaged girl, who was molested and thrown off a bus belonging to the ruling Badal family. Rakhra said what happened was God’s will.

‘Nobody can stop accidents. Whatever happens, happens through God’s will. We are doing what we can. What happened was unfortunate. You cannot go against nature’s will,” he said.

Watch what he said here.

The girl’s family has rejected government compensation and demanded action against the owners of the vehicle. Since last evening, her family has also refused to perform her last rites until they get justice.

“There is no headway on this issue (on the cremation),” Moga SSP Jatinder Singh Khehra said. The body of girl has been kept in a mortuary at Singhawala village in Moga.

All attempts by the state authorities to persuade the bereaved family to cremate her proved futile after they rejected a compensation of Rs 20 lakh, a government job for her mother, free treatment and and a trial of the case in a fast track court.

The family has insisted that the owners of the bus, Orbit Aviation, also be booked in connection with the offence and its road permits be cancelled, a demand vociferously supported by AAP.

“I want justice. I want justice for my daughter. FIR should be registered against those whom the bus belonged to,” the victim’s father said on Friday. When asked whether he wanted a case filed against Punjab Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal who owns the company, he said, “FIR can be lodged against him (Sukhbir). After all he is a human being. Is there nobody in the world who can lodge FIR against him?”

The 13-year-old victim and her mother were thrown off the moving bus by a group of men, including the conductor, after they resisted a molestation attempt on Thursday.

(With inputs from PTI)