Farmers Movement Archive

Ahead of Delhi ride, man dies in Gurdaspur

Gurdaspur: A farmer, who was actively involved in the farmers’ struggle against the three farm laws, died in mysterious circumstances at Gawar village in Gurdaspur. The deceased was identified as Parwinder Singh (45). Though sources said Parwinder committed suicide, as he held himself responsible for failure to mobilise more people for the ongoing agitation on Delhi borders, police cited the autopsy report to rule out the possibility of suicide. Sources said Parwinder allegedly committed suicide on Sunday after he couldn’t persuade more farmers and villagers to join the protest for which he had even got his tractor trolley readied and had parked the same outside a local gurdwara. Jamhuri Kisan Sabha senior vice-president Jagjit Singh Kalanaur said Parwinder had been actively associated with farmers’ struggle since the beginning and had also visited Delhi on several occasions. “He had prepared his tractor trolley to leave for Delhi and had been successful in persuading about a dozen persons to join him, but he was not happy upon not getting an encouraging response to his call,” Kalanaur said, adding that something happened to him and he collapsed. He said earlier, Parwinder had stayed in Delhi for about 8 to 10 days and had also gone to attend the tractor march on January 23. Denying reports of suicide by Parwinder, Batala senior superintendent of police Rachpal Singh said Parwinder had made an announcement from village gurdwara about going to Delhi on Sunday morning. “He went to answer nature’s call and later some villagers found his body near the local cremation ground,” the SSP said, adding that nothing suspicious was found in the post-mortem report. “There is no injury or any sign of an attempt to suicide,” he said, adding that Parwinder could have possibly died of cardiac arrest.

The Times of India

2021-02-16

Chandigarh