Farmers Movement Archive

Plea for judicial probe by retired judge into Karnal lathicharge

CHANDIGARH: A petition has been filed before the Punjab and Haryana high court seeking judicial probe headed by a retired judge of the high court into the ‘violent’ action of police on farmers in Karnal on August 28. Several farmers had allegedly received brutal injuries in the police action. The plea in HC has also pleaded for registration of FIRs and departmental action, on the conclusion of inquiry, against the accountable police officials who were liable for giving orders to their subordinates to physically injure the farmers in the process of dispersing them. Directions have also been sought to look into the role of Karnal SDM Ayush Sinha, the young IAS officer who was seen in a video directing cops to smash the head of protesters, and other officers of civil and police administration in Karnal. According to the plea, the state of aggression and violent behaviour of police was an outcome of illegal orders of the SDM Karnal. A DVD regarding a video clip of the SDM has also been attached with the petition filed by Munish Lather, advocate and other residents of Haryana’s Karnal district who were injured in the August 28 incident. The petitioners have also sought directions to provide adequate compensation to all the injured farmers/victims for the infringement of their fundamental rights and illegally using physical force to disperse the peacefully protesting farmers. According to the petitioners, the members of civil administration as well as police administration in Karnal had acted illegally and brutally and dealt with unarmed peaceful agitators with undue force and brutality which has seriously jeopardised the fundamental rights of the citizens of India who have a right to demonstrate as provided under the constitution. “Any violation of the same gives a cause of action for the HC to mark an enquiry to be held from a retired high court judge in order to safeguard the fundamental rights, being custodian of the same and to look into the role of SDM Ayush Sinha, DSP Virender Saini and inspector Harjinder Singh as well as similar other violent civil and police officers,” the petitioners have submitted. It has also been alleged in the petition that the injured farmers were not provided medical aid immediately. It has also been alleged that some of the injured farmers were even threatened with not getting their X-ray examination done for reasons best known to police officials. One of the injured farmers suffered a heart attack and also died. The petitioners have impleaded additional chief secretary (home), DGP Haryana, SP Karnal, Virender Saini, DSP, Ayush Sinha, SDM, and inspector Harjinder Singh of Karnal as respondents in the petition. The petition is likely to come up for hearing next week. BOX ‘Still thriving in the dungeon of the past’ “Theoretically, the right to protest exists in India, however, practically, we are still thriving in the dungeon of the past where the demand for the existence of the ‘Right to Protest’ could label us non-compos mentis (of unsound mind). The state of the art political scenario of 2021 is witnessing a paradigm shift wherein there has been incessant vilification and ostracization of the farmers protesting against the three farm laws for over ten months” Petition in the Punjab and Haryana high court

The Times of India

2021-09-02

Chandigarh