Farmers Movement Archive

Locals in Pilibhit demand withdrawal of FIR against farmer’s widow, brother

Strap: ADG says police should have charged Rampur farmer’s family tooPilibhit: Local farmers in Uttar Pradesh's Pilibhit along with other leaders and politicians have demanded an immediate withdrawal of the FIR lodged against the widow and brother of a protesting farmer who had recently lost his life in the national capital.The matter will be taken up during Saturday's 'kisan panchayat' under the joint aegis of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) on the campus of Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee in Pilibhit.Three persons, including the deceased farmer’s wife and brother, were booked on Wednesday night for draping his body in tricolour.One of the leaders spearheading the farmers' movement, Yogendra Yadav, told TOI that he was not surprised with the police action.“There is a technicality of law and the spirit of law. The technicality always needs to be reviewed in context of the spirit. If the protesting farmers wish to honour their martyr by draping his body in a national flag, they only enhance the dignity of the national flag which shows their love for the tricolour and their sense of pride. In such a situation any government should celebrate rather than come up with the technicality," Yadav, who is the president of Swaraj India, said.Meanwhile, BKU district president Satvinder Singh Kahlon said the 'kisan panchayat' will take up the "FIR issue". The panchayat will be attended by thousands of farmers and a memorandum of their demands addressed to the prime minister will be handed over to officials, he added.State politicians such as RLD's state vice-president Manjit Singh Sandhu and a former minister Hemraj Verma of Samajwadi Party demanded the withdrawal of the FIR.Incidentally, another deceased farmer Navreet Singh's body was also wrapped in the national flag. Singh had died when his tractor overturned in Delhi. When asked, ADG of Bareilly zone Avinash Chandra said, “An FIR should have been lodged in Rampur too as the national flag code allows this privilege only in certain cases."

The Times of India

2021-02-06

Bareilly