Chaduni asks farmers to support their 'brothers' in jail
Darpan News Desk IANS, 22 Mar, 2022 10:55 AM
Lakhimpur Kheri, March 22 (IANS) Gurnam Singh Chaduni, a prominent Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader from Haryana, has asked farmers to support their "brothers" who have been in jail for the alleged lynching of three BJP workers during the Lakhimpur Kheri violence that took place on October 3 last year.
Chaduni was in Lakhimpur on Monday and he addressed a meeting of local farmers in a gurdwara premises.
He asked farmers to "fight" to cancel the bail given to Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni's son, Ashish Mishra, who was accused of mowing down four farmers and a journalist with his convoy during the violence.
Chaduni also requested the farmers to contribute to ensure that bail is given to the four accused farmers lodged in jail.
During the meeting, he said that it was the police's responsibility to "ensure the security" of the witnesses.
One of the farmers who attended the meeting said: "We decided to garner support for our four farmer brothers lodged in jail. The government had earlier promised that there would be no case against farmers but they did not fulfil it. Now everyone is getting bail except innocent farmers."
The demand made by citizens primarily mirrored their right to clean air and the right to breathe, underlining the reality that Punjab is home to some of India's most polluted towns, including Mandi Gobindgarh, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Khanna, and Patiala.
The case was assigned to the division bench of Justices A.G. Masih and Ashok Kumar Verma. Earlier, the case was being heard by the bench of Justices Rajan Gupta and Ajay Tewari but the latter recused himself from hearing the case on September 1.
Furnishing details about the incident, Additional DCP-2 Nishant Gupta told IANS that they had received information about a firing incident in the northeast Delhi area on October 1.
The activists of Punjab Congress will walk towards Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh if Priyanka Gandhi is not released and the Union Minister's son accused of murder not arrested, said state party President Navjot Sidhu on Tuesday.
Referring to police action against protesting farmers in Congress-ruled Rajasthan, the BJP leader said, "Congress leaders who are very keen to visit Lakhimpur Kheri have not uttered a single word against police lathicharge on farmers in Hanumangarh, Rajasthan."
Comparisons are on in social media whether this arrest could change the Congress fortunes as after Indira Gandhi's arrest and later in the election in 1980 the Congress returned with a thumping majority.
