On Sunday, Rakesh Tikait, the head of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), claimed that the lynching of a man near the Singhu border was a “religious problem” unrelated to the ongoing farmers’ protest. Farmers have also claimed that the situation is a religious one. Tikait was cited as stating,
On Friday, a Dalit Sikh man, Lakhbir Singh, was murdered and hung up at the Singhu protest site, with a gang of protestors, the Nihang Sikhs, claiming credit in a video. According to videos and photographs, the victim was tied to an overturned police barrier, his hand cut off, and his ankle and leg shattered. According to the Nihang Sikhs, the attack was carried out because the guy reportedly insulted sacred text.
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SKM, leading the protest since farmers first arrived at the border site in November, tried to disassociate itself from the incident soon after the videos surfaced. The SKM condemned the killing and vowed to work with the authorities, despite having “no link” to the assailants or the victim.
Meanwhile, three persons accused of being lynching were sentenced to six days in police detention on Sunday after the Haryana Police established two Special Investigation Teams to investigate the event. Four people have been arrested thus far. Narain Singh, a Nihang order member, was apprehended near Amritsar on Saturday. Two additional Nihangs from Fatehgarh Sahib, Govindpreet Singh and Bhagwant Singh, “surrendered” to the Sonipat Police on the same day during the lynching.
The three defendants were brought before a court in Sonipat, held in police detention for six days. The police requested the accused’s remand because they needed to reconstruct the crime scene and collect the accused’s weapons and clothing, in addition to questioning them extensively about the event.
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The recordings of the event circulating on social media will be investigated by an SIT led by IPS officer Mayank Gupta, the Assistant Superintendent of Police, Kharkhoda, Sonipat. The whole investigation would be carried out by the second SIT, led by Deputy Superintendent of Police, Sonipat, Virender Singh. Lakhbir’s family had already questioned the assailants’ allegation of sacrilege and sought a high-level investigation into the matter.
