Grandfather of farmer who died in tractor rally moves HC for probe

New Delhi: The grandfather of the farmer who had died in Delhi's ITO area while participating in the tractor rally on Republic Day has moved the Delhi High Court seeking court-monitored SIT probeinto the incident.

On January 26, Navreet Singh died after his tractor overturned after ramming into police barricades. The accident was captured on CCTV camera. Deceased's grandfather Hardeep Singh has, however, claimed that he was allegedly shot by policemen, due to which he lost control of the vehicle.

The Delhi Police had released a video showing a protester speeding and running over barricades with his tractor near ITO, resulting in the vehicle overturning. A post-mortem report revealed that the protester died due to the accident.

The plea has sought for a court-appointed and monitored Special Investigation Team probe. It also sought the SIT file periodic status reports to ensure time-bound court-monitored investigation.

The petition said the forensic experts, who reviewed the description of injuries in the post-mortem report, independently opined that the injuries were consistent with firearm or gunshot wounds and could not have resulted from the tractor overturning.

The petitioner contended that "the haste with which Delhi Police made public statements declaring incident to be an accident, as well as registered FIRs against senior journalists who have pursued the possibility of Navreet Singh's death having resulted from a firearm injury, inspires no confidence that Police would conduct a fair and honest investigation into the death of his grandson".

The matter is likely to come up for hearing on February 11.