Farmer died during R-Day violence due to shock, haemorrhage: Delhi, UP Police to HC

New Delhi [India], February 26 : The Delhi and Uttar Pradesh Police on Friday told the Delhi High Court that the cause of the death of Navreet Singh, a farmer who died on January 26 in the national capital, is shock and haemorrhage as a result of antemortem head injury and not due to any gunshot injury.
The Delhi Police and Uttar Pradesh Police's response came as a reply filed in an ongoing petition moved by the father of the deceased seeking a court-monitored probe into the death of a farmer Navreet Singh. He has raised several questions on the death and sought a post mortem video and X-ray report of the deceased.
The Uttar Pradesh Police said as per the opinion of the panel of doctors conducting the post-mortem, the cause of death of Navreet Singh is shock and haemorrhage as a result of antemortem head injury. "The death is not due to any gunshot injury," said the Uttar Pradesh Police.
Maintaining the response of the Uttar Pradesh Police, the Delhi Police said that the petition filed by the farmer's father is based on some news report and individual opinion which have no evidentiary value in the eyes of the law and is based on hearsay evidence.
The Delhi Police also said protestors did not take Navreet to any nearby hospital. It further stated that an unruly mob did not allow the ambulance to take the injured to the hospital on time which led to the death of the injured farmer because of the inability to get timely medical aid. The Delhi Police said that the protestors had kept the body on road for around five hours.
The Uttar Pradesh Police told the Court that the entire proceedings were carried out in the presence of the petitioner and other relatives of the deceased and respondents have strictly followed the procedure as laid down in law and have supported the petitioner and the family members in every manner permissible in law.
The Uttar Pradesh Police also said that there is no provision of giving the videography of the post-mortem or original X-ray plates which are medico-legal documents, to the family of the deceased by the medical department.
The court would hear the matter on March 4.
The plea moved by the family of the deceased has sought a thorough and independent court-monitored probe into the alleged incident. It alleged that the cause of death to be bullet injury but, according to the Delhi Police, Navreet Singh died in the accident after the tractor he was driving overturned after ramming into a barricade near ITO in Delhi.
The Lawyer for the petitioner, Advocate Vrinda Grover has 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.
According to the Delhi Police, Navreet Singh died in the accident after the tractor he was driving overturned after ramming into a barricade near ITO.
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 the farmers.
The protestors had also 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.