150 BKUactivists booked for blocking Bathinda highway

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, February 23

The Nathana police today registered a case against 150 activists of the BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) for blocking the Bathinda-Barnala highway yesterday.

Among those booked, only 25 have been identified, including district president of BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) Shangara Singh Mann.

The case has been registered under Sections 148, 149, 283 and 431 of the IPC, National Highway Act, 1956, Section 8 of the Punjab Prevention of Damages to Public and Private Property Act-2014 and Section 4 of the Noise Pollution Act.

The police had booked Sukhmander Singh, son of Jaswant Singh who committed suicide in front of patwari Jagjeet Singh in May 2017. The deceased’s wife and two daughters-in-law were also booked in the case.

Farmer unions were demanding that a fraud case should be registered against the accused patwari who had allegedly tampered with the documents of Jaswant’s agricultural land. They were also demanding compensation for the deceased’s family with interest and a government job for a family member.

Mann alleged that the government was openly supporting the patwari and was not listening to the farmer’s family. He also alleged that the police were trying to build pressure on Jaswant’s family to reach a compromise.