Attack on deputy speaker's car: 100 farmers booked for sedition, murder bid

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, July 13

The first sedition case against farmers in their agitation against the controversial three farm laws has been registered by the Sirsa police.

Getting tough with the agitators, who allegedly vandalised the official vehicle of Haryana Deputy Speaker Ranbir Gangwa in Sirsa on July 11, the police booked two farm leaders, Harcharan Singh and Prahlad Singh, and 90-100 other unidentified farmers under stringent Sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including 124-A (sedition) and 307 (attempt to murder).

SHO suspended

The police have suspended Vikram Singh, SHO of the Civil Lines, Sirsa, for allegedly mishandling the situation which resulted in the vandalising of the Deputy Speaker’s car on Sunday. A departmental inquiry has also been initiated against DSP Sanjay Kumar. Earlier, SP Bhupender Singh was replaced with Arpit Jain after the incident.

Meanwhile, Home Minister Anil Vij went on the offensive, alleging that the farmers’ agitation was getting violent with each passing day. “The violent agitation cannot be allowed to continue in a democratic and peaceful country,” he asserted.

The Bharatiya Kisan Union state spokesman Rakesh Bains said the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) would take a call on the issue at its meeting on July 14.

The official car of the Deputy Speaker came under attack on Sunday when the farmers during a statewide protest against the farm laws were protesting at Sirsa. The rear windscreen of the car was broken when it was pelted with stones. Gangwa, who was reportedly sitting on the front seat, escaped unhurt.

The farmers, demanding rollback of the farm laws, have been at loggerheads with the ruling BJP-JJP, disrupting the official and party events for several months.

In May, booking of certain farmers, who tried to disrupt an official function of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar at Hisar, snowballed into a major confrontation between the Haryana Government and the farmers. The administration later withdraw the cases, which included attempt to murder charges, after hundreds of farmers from across the state had laid seige to Hisar.