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Haryana Police arrest farm activist, his aide from Mohali
Navdeep, 29, and his aide, Gurkirat Shahpur, 26, were reportedly nabbed near Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport of Mohali by the CIA-1 unit of the police in a murder bid case registered on February 13 in connection with the ongoing farmers’ agitation on the Haryana-Punjab border.
A day after the Ambala Police arrested Navdeep Jalbera, alias water cannon boy of the 2020 farmers’ agitation, from Mohali, he was presented before an Ambala court on Friday and sent to two-day police remand.
Navdeep, 29, and his aide, Gurkirat Shahpur, 26, were reportedly nabbed near Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport of Mohali by the CIA-1 unit of the police in a murder bid case registered on February 13 in connection with the ongoing farmers’ agitation on the Haryana-Punjab border.
Both accused are members of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Shaheed Bhagat Singh) and residents of Ambala district.
In the FIR, Ambala Police claimed that the farmer union leaders, despite knowing that Section 144 is in place, took part in the agitation, tried to break barricades and pelted the forces deployed near Shambhu toll plaza with stones.
As per the court documents, the case was registered against farmer leaders Sarwan Singh Pandher, Amarjeet Mohri, Jai Singh Jalbera, Navdeep Jalbera, Sukhchain Badog, Gurkirat Shahpur, Tejveer Singh and several others.
Their counsel Rohit Jain said that a remand of four days was sought, but after considering the facts, the court granted two days’ remand.
“Police told the court that they have to recover the source of sticks and swords, slingshots and car, and also arrest the person who modified the tractor meant to break barricades. We argued that the police have been trying to hide facts and have not even uploaded the FIR online. We told the court that the grounds of case registration are unjustified,” he said.
Farmer unions slam Haryana govt
With the arrests coming days before the farmers were to gather in Ambala for the second commemoration event of farm activist Shubhkaran Singh, 21, who died during a clash with Haryana police, the unions slammed the Haryana Police action.
BKU Shaheed Bhagat Singh spokesperson Tejvir Singh said that farmers and union leaders were being threatened by the Ambala Police conducting the raids. He added that Police had also pasted notices outside the residences of union leaders and farmers to create an atmosphere of fear and discourage them from taking part in the commemoration gathering.
Terming the FIR Navdeep and Gurkirat fabricated, Tejvir said that farmer leaders would continue their efforts to mobilise the farmers for the commemoration gathering on March 31.
Another farmer leader, Manjeet Rai, said that they had been peacefully organising the Kalash Yatra of Shubhkaran Singh over the past few weeks in Haryana, but the government seemed to be in panic mode as they are now making arrests. “If the government does not release the arrested farmers before March 31, we will block railway lines,” said Rai.
