Will share details of protester’s death on R-Day with kin: Police

Navreet Singh’s grandfather had approached the high court seeking a court-monitored probe into the death of his grandson during the tractor rally on January 26.

The Delhi Police on Thursday told the Delhi high court that they have nothing to hide in the death of a 25-year-old farmer during the tractor rally on Republic Day. Police reiterated that farmer Navreet Singh had died of injuries sustained after his tractor overturned during the parade and said they were ready to share the CCTV footage of the incident.

Farmers on tractors remove concrete barricades installed to prevent them from entering the city during the tractor rally in New Delhi on January 26. (Sajjad Hussain / AFP)

Advocate Rahul Mehra, standing counsel for the Delhi government (criminal cases), informed justice Yogesh Khanna that the police have no hesitancy in sharing the evidence and case documents with Navreet Singh’s grandfather, who had approached the high court seeking a court-monitored probe into the death of his grandson.

“We have no hesitancy in sharing the documents and CCTV clips related to the case. We will preserve them and give them whenever they are required,” Mehra told the court, while terming Singh’s death as “unfortunate”. The police also told the court that they have registered a general FIR in the case.

Navreet’s grandfather Hardeep Singh, through his counsel Vrinda Grover and Soutik Banerjee, alleged that his grandson was shot by the police during the tractor parade as a result of which his tractor overturned and rammed the barricades.

The petition also said the Delhi Police had falsely declared that Singh had died due to the accidental overturning of the tractor even though they did not fairly investigate the cause of death.

Arguing for the grandfather, advocate Grover told the court that the way Delhi Police has conducted themselves in the matter “does not inspire a shred of confidence”.

She said the Andhra School Society, outside which the tractor had overturned, had several cameras and the police had barged into the school (Republic Day being a holiday), and taken away the DVR of all the CCTV cameras. She said the police had then selectively released a piece of the footage -- one that offers only a long shot of the incident and hence is not very clear.

Grover argued that the police had abandoned all procedures -- such as carrying out inquest proceedings, conducting a post-mortem examination and lodging an FIR -- as required under the law into Singh’s death, even if it was a case of accidental death.

She contended that the victim’s grandfather took the body back to their native place in Uttar Pradesh where the post-mortem examination was carried out.

Grover told the court that according to a UK-based pathologist, who saw the video of the incident and also perused the post-mortem report, the injuries on the victim were consistent with at least one or two gunshot wounds.

The plea had said that several medical/forensic experts who have reviewed the description of injuries in the post-mortem report have independently made statements opining that the injuries are consistent with firearm /gunshot wounds, and that the said injuries could not have resulted from the tractor overturning.

The high court has issued notices to the Delhi government, the Delhi Police and the SHO of Bilaspur (Uttar Pradesh) police station (where the autopsy was conducted) and will further hear the matter on February 26.

On January 26, thousands of protesting farmers who had reached ITO from the Ghazipur border and clashed with police. Many of them also reached the Red Fort from where another bout of violence was reported. Several protesters and personnel were injured in the violence that day.