Karnal lathi-charge: Charuni appears before inquiry commission, says farmers were attacked intentionally

Farm leader Gurnam Singh Charuni on Wednesday appeared before the one-member inquiry commission formed to probe the sequence of events that led to police lathi-charge at Bastara toll plaza in Karnal on August 28

Farm leader Gurnam Singh Charuni on Wednesday appeared before the one-member inquiry commission formed to probe the sequence of events that led to police lathi-charge at Bastara toll plaza in Karnal on August 28.

Farm leader Gurnam Singh Charuni. (HT File)

Charuni did not disclose what he had told the inquiry commission in the written statement but said that they have enough evidence against the then Karnal SDM Ayush Sinha who was caught in a video directing the cops to hit the farmers on the head if they crossed the barricades.

“Why were directions to crack the heads of farmers given to police and the protocol not followed?” he added.

Justice Som Nath Aggarwal (retd), head of the commission of inquiry, said the government had demanded the government extend the one month’s deadline to four months – giving three more months to the commission to submit its report.

He said statements of 25 people have been recorded as a list of 35 people as witnesses of the incident has been prepared by the commission including Sinha, Karnal deputy commissioner Nishant Yadav and SP Ganga Ram Punia.

“Stubbornness of the BJP government has forced the farmers to hold protests and sit on roads for the past 11 months,” he added.

Charuni has refuted any differences with other leaders of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), saying that all farm leaders are working together.

He said farmers will intensify their agitation from November 29 as 500 farmers will take out a protest march to the Parliament every day.

“We will continue this fight until the government repeals the three farm laws,” he added.