Traffic blocked after Ratia Vyapar Mandal ex-chief ‘beaten to death’

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Ratia (Fatehabad), Dec 16

Hundreds of residents came on the streets and blocked the Ratia–Fatehabad road, demanding the arrest of culprits after Chaman Lal Garg, a former president of the Ratia Vyapar Mandal, was alleaged “beaten to death” by a farmer and his men over a monetary dispute.

All shops remained closed in Ratia today against yesterday’s incident in which Garg, who had gone to readymade clothes shop owned by farmer Karma Singh to demand his money, collapsed after he was allegedly thrashed by the farmer and his sons.

The police have registered a murder case against Karma Singh and his two sons, Sukhmal and Sukhpreet.

The accused are at large.

Led by family members of the deceased, hundreds of residents today blocked traffic on the Fatehabad–Ratia highway.

Ratia SDM Amna Tasneem went to the spot to persuade the agitators to lift the blockade. Due to a communication gap, the agitators started raising slogans against the SDM who had to be escorted out. In fact, the young SDM was trying to take a mike from an agitator to address them but it fell down, making the agitators think that she was trying to snatch it. They protesters demanded that the SDM should leave the place. Later, DC NK Solanki and Parul Kush Jain, SP, arrived there and spoke to representatives of the demonstrators