Farm activists acquitted in 2015 rail blockade case

Tribune News Service

Moga, October 6

Six years after a criminal case of disrupting the movement of railways was registered against six senior activists of farm unions, the Moga Chief Judicial Magistrate, Preeti Sukhija, acquitted all of them from the allegations after the prosecution failed to prove the charges against them.

In 2015, the farm unions launched a widespread protest across the state over the infamous 2015 pesticide scam demanding adequate compensation for farmers who lost their cotton crop to ‘fake’ pesticides.

Though the state vigilance bureau registered a criminal case against the then Director of the Agriculture Department, Mangal Singh Sandhu, and few other officials of the department, no compensation was awarded to the farmers. Local SAD stalwart Jathedar Tota Singh was the Agriculture Minister at that time. Therefore, the protests were intensely held in Moga district.

The Railway police had booked Kirti Kisan Union president Nirbhai Singh Dhudike, BKU Ekta general secretary Sukhdev Singh and four other farm activists — Devinder Singh Ghali, Shinder Singh Nathuwala, Gurdeep Singh Vairoke and Balaur Singh Ghal Kalan.