Protesting Punjab farmer ends life at Delhi’s Singhu border

Police say 45-year-old resident of Fatehgarh Sahib, who hung himself to death from a tree, had been staying alone in a tractor-trolley at Singhu

A 45-year-old farmer from Punjab, who was protesting against the Centre’s farm laws, died by suicide near Sushant City on the Kundli-Singhu border adjoining Delhi early on Wednesday, police said.

The body of the Punjab farmer was taken to the Sonepat civil hospital for post-mortem examination from Singhu border, one of the protest sites against the farm laws. (Representational photo)

The farmer was from Fatehgarh Sahib district and hung himself from a tree. A spokesman of Kundli police said the victim had been staying alone in a tractor-trolley near Sushant City for the past 15 days.

The body was sent to the civil hospital at Sonepat for post-mortem examination.

According to Nirmal Singh, a friend of the farmer, he owned five acres of farm land. “He was associated with the Bharti Kisan Union’s Krantikari wing and had visited Singhu several times in the past 11 months,” he said.

He said the victim’s family was under a debt of ₹6 lakh and was survived by two daughters, aged 21 and 19 years, besides a teenaged son. “We demand the government pay a compensation of ₹10 lakh and a government job to one of his children,” Nirmal Singh said.

He said the reason for taking the extreme step was yet to be ascertained as the family was in shock.

Farmers from Punjab have been camping at Delhi’s Singhu and Tikri borders since November last year in protest against the Centre’s three farm laws.

With inputs from Navrajdeep Singh in Patiala