Protesting farmers demanded that the charges be dropped, as nobody was attacked or injured.
thewire.in
New Delhi: A group of protesters who are reportedly angry with the Centre’s new farms laws had recently unloaded a truckload of cow dung in front of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Punjab minister Tikshan Sud’s house. Now, the police has charged them with ‘attempt to murder’ and other sections, and created a four-member special investigation team (SIT) to probe the matter.
Complainant Surinder Pal Bhatti, the BJP district secretary, has told the police that he was going to Sud’s house on January 1 when he saw a tractor trolley too heading in the same direction, and then unload cow dung onto the front of his house. Bhatti also alleged that the protesters tried to attack Sud, but were stopped by his men,
Indian Express reported. He also alleged that the tractor driver tried to ‘run over’ him and his friend.
Those protesting against the Centre’s contentious new farm laws have been angry with Sud after he recently said that the protesters were “having a picnic” at the Delhi borders. Sud also claimed that the farmers didn’t understand the laws they were protesting against.
According to the
Indian Express, after the incident on January 1, a case was filed against unidentified persons under six sections of the Indian Penal Code — 307 (attempt to murder), 452 (house trespassing), 506 (criminal intimidation), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 148 (rioting) and 149 (unlawful Assembly) of IPC.
Quoting eyewitnesses, the newspaper said that the trolley never entered Sud’s house, and while Sud’s men were angered by the cow dung and there was a scuffle, there was no attack on anyone.
Jalandhar district president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Rajewal) Mandeep Singh said that the police was acting at the BJP’s behest. “When no attack was made and no one got hurt, how could attempt to murder, rioting sections be imposed on the farmers? If the case is not canceled we will block roads in Jalandhar on January 7,” he said.