Delhi violence: 12 farmer leaders asked to appear before Crime Branch on January 29
The Crime Branch of Delhi Polie on Friday sent notices to 12 farmer leaders to appear before the investigating team for questioning in connection with Republic Day violence. They have been asked to join the investigation on January 29. The 12 leaders including Buta Singh Burj Gill, Darshan Pal, Rakesh Tikait, Satnam Pannu, and Shamsher Pandher.
Earlier on Thursday, police issued lookout notices against farmer leaders named in an FIR in connection with the violence during the farmers' tractor parade on Republic Day and invoked sedition charges in a case of the Red Fort incident as the force intensified its investigation. It also asked the farmer leaders to submit their response within three days, explaining why legal action should not be taken against them as they did not follow conditions set for the parade.
Police have named 37 farmer leaders, including Rakesh Tikait, Yogendra Yadav and Medha Patkar, in the FIR that mentioned charges of attempt to murder, rioting and criminal conspiracy. Other farmer leaders who have been listed in the FIR are Darshan Pal, Gurnam Singh Chanduni, Kulwant Singh Sandhu, Satnam Singh Pannu, Joginder Singh Ugraha, Surjeet Singh Phool, Jagjeet Singh Dalewal, Balbir Singh Rajewal and Harinder Singh Lakhoval. Earlier, Delhi Police had named actor Deep Sidhu and gangster-turned-social activist Lakha Sidhana in an FIR lodged in connection with the Red Fort incident.
Police Commissioner SN Srivastava had on Wednesday said that no culprit would be spared. He held a meeting with the special commissioner of police (Intelligence) and other senior police officers at the police headquarters on Thursday.
The farmer unions protesting against the three farm laws alleged that there was a conspiracy behind the violence, which left 394 police personnel injured and one protestor dead. Thousands of protesting farmers, who reached ITO from the Ghazipur border, had clashed with the police on January 26. Many of them, driving tractors, reached the Red Fort and entered the monument.
Some protestors even hoisted flags on the domes and placed the flagstaff at the ramparts of the national monument, where the national flag is unfurled by the prime minister on Independence Day.
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