Delhi HC adjourns hearing on plea seeking court-monitored probe into farmer's death during R-Day tractor rally
Feb 26, 2021
New Delhi [India], February 26 : The Delhi High Court on Thursday adjourned the matter till March 4 on a plea seeking court-monitored probe into the death of a farmer Navreet Singh, who died during the tractor rally on January 26 in the national capital.
The family had approached the Delhi High Court and raised several questions on the death and sought a post mortem video and X-ray report of the deceased.
A single-judge bench of Justice Yogesh Khanna deferred the matter for March 4 after the respondent counsel sought adjournment.
The Delhi police have earlier informed the Delhi High Court that a first information report (FIR) has been registered in the death of Singh who had died allegedly due to the overturning of a tractor during the tractors rally on Republic day.
The plea has sought a thorough and independent court-monitored probe into the alleged incident. It alleges the cause of death to be bullet injury but, according to the Delhi Police, Singh died in the accident after the tractor he was driving overturned after ramming into a barricade near ITO in Delhi.
Lawyer for petitioner Advocate Vrinda Grover submitted that various medical/ forensic experts who have reviewed the description of injuries in the post mortem report have independently made statements reported by various media houses, opining that the injuries are consistent with firearm /gunshot wounds and that the said injuries could not have resulted from the tractor overturning, as has been repeatedly asserted and announced by the Delhi police including senior officers, the Commissioner of Police and Deputy Commissioner of Police.
The plea moved by the grandfather of the deceased has stated that he has sufficient "reason to mistrust and not accept the hasty, unverified and self-serving conclusion of the Delhi Police, which has publicly and without any investigation stated that the death of his grandson was a motor vehicle accident'"
The Delhi Police had released CCTV footage showing the farmer's tractor overturning after ramming into barricades at ITO.
Protesters broke barricades to enter New Delhi and clashed with police in several parts of the national capital during the January 26 'tractor rally' protest organised by farmers.
The demonstrators also had entered the iconic Mughal era monument Red Fort and unfurled their flags from its ramparts.
Farmers have been protesting on the different borders of the national capital since November 26 last year against the three newly enacted farm laws: Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.