Chandigarh: Eight days after a 22-year-old farmer, Shubhkaran Singh, was allegedly killed during police action against agitating farmers on the Punjab and Haryana border, the Punjab Police have lodged a zero FIR against unknown persons for murder.
The FIR was registered at Patran police station in Patiala late Wednesday night on the statement of the deceased’s father, Charanjit Singh.
The zero FIR — registered when the place of occurrence is not known — was filed due to the issue of jurisdiction in the case.
Shubhkaran, a Bathinda resident, was killed during a clash between the Haryana Police and agitating farmers on the Punjab-Haryana border at Khanauri on 21 February. Haryana Police have claimed several times in the past week that Shubhkaran had died within the borders of the state and action can only be taken by them.
Following the registration of the FIR, a postmortem exam was conducted on Shubhkaran’s body at the Government Medical College in Patiala. His body had been lying in a mortuary there since the day of the incident.
On Thursday morning, Shubhkaran’s body was taken to his residential village Ballo in Bathinda for cremation.
In a video message issued Thursday, Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP), Headquarters, Sukhchain Singh Gill said the zero FIR had been registered on the advice of legal experts and that further investigation in the case would be carried out according to law.
He added that the family of the deceased would be given Rs 1 crore as compensation and, as requested by the family, Shubhkaran’s sister would be given a job as a constable in the Punjab Police.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia criticised the registration of the zero FIR and said on social media that it would have zero results.
“A zero FIR has been registered and sent to Haryana for investigation. Now, will the Haryana Police investigate its own officers? (Punjab) Chief minister Bhagwant Mann is a tout now playing in the hands of the Haryana government and is working on the directions of the Haryana Police,” he wrote on X.
According to Majithia, more than 250 farmers had been injured in the police action, of whom 20 were in a serious condition.
He said that another farmer named Preetpal Singh had his legs and jaw broken and no justice had been given to him or to Shubhkaran.
“Did the farmers beat themselves up and injure themselves? It Is clear to every Punjabi that you are working with the consent of the Haryana government,” he alleged.
Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira also criticised the FIR on the grounds that it had been registered after an avoidable delay, and that too against unknown persons.
“What about justice to more than 250 farmers injured in the #farmersprotests2024 by Haryana Police intruding into Punjab territory and also damaging scores of tractors? Who will be held responsible for such large-scale state-sponsored violence?” he wrote on X.
The highly belated FIR registered against the killing of farmer #Shubkaran last night is a repeat story of Behbal Kalan killings where the police in uniform who shot 2 Sikhs in 2015 were UNKNOWN and here too the guilty police are UNKNOWN ! I @BhagwantMann should explain nearly 10… pic.twitter.com/8MADOBADg3
— Sukhpal Singh Khaira (@SukhpalKhaira) February 29, 2024
Speaking on the sidelines of a function in Mohali, Punjab CM Mann told the media Thursday that the zero FIR had been lodged following advice from legal experts, and that further investigation would be carried out to ascertain where the incident took place and who was responsible for Shubhkaran’s death. He added that the postmortem report would further reveal the cause of death.
ThePrint reached out to IGP Gill and Patiala Senior Superintendent of Police Varun Sharma via calls and messages with a query about whether investigation in the case had been shifted to Garhi police station in Haryana (as mentioned in the FIR), but there was no response.
Superintendent of Police of Jind, Sumit Kumar, told ThePrint that the Haryana Police were yet to receive a copy of the FIR from the Punjab Police.
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What FIR says
According to the FIR, a copy of which is with ThePrint, Shubhkaran’s father told the police that his son had gone along with other farmers to the Khanauri border as part of the protest.
The FIR says that Shubhkaran, along with other farmers, was part of a gathering on a road that was barricaded by the Haryana Police, who were “firing teargas shells and bullets” towards them.
The FIR adds that as directed by the farmer leaders, Shubhkaran along with other farmers left the road and entered the fields around the border, “where too, teargas shells and bullets continued to be fired by the Haryana Police”.
According to the FIR, the farmer leaders then asked the protesters to go back to their tractors and trolleys, which were parked about 2 kilometre away from the barricades.
“Shubhkaran had just moved about five steps when a bullet hit him and he collapsed on the spot. The people around him picked him up and rushed him to a hospital in Khanauri in an ambulance where he was declared dead,” reads the FIR.
In column 5 (c) of the FIR, it’s stated that in case (the allegations made in the FIR fall) outside the limits of the police station (where the FIR is registered), the police station of Garhi in Haryana’s Jind is mentioned.
Column 13 (4) of the FIR, detailing action taken on the complaint, states that the FIR has been transferred to Garhi police station in Jind on point of jurisdiction.
Farmers have been gathered at Khanauri and Shambhu in Punjab since 13 February as part of the “Dilli Chalo” call to press for their demands. Haryana Police have made unprecedented arrangements to stop farmers from moving to Delhi and have been using rubber bullets and teargas shells to contain the movement of the agitators.
Mann, in an address on the evening of Shubhkaran’s death, promised the “strictest possible action” against those responsible, including the registration of an FIR.
The Punjab CM had come under severe criticism from the Opposition over not taking any action in the matter.
Taking up a PIL filed by advocate Uday Pratap Singh in the Punjab and Haryana High Court regarding the ongoing farmers’ agitation, a division bench headed by acting chief Justice G.S. Sandhawalia pulled up the Punjab government Thursday over the delay in registering an FIR in the case of Shubhkaran’s death.
Hearing an application moved as part of the PIL by advocate Harinderpal Singh Issar for a probe into Shubhkaran’s death by a retired high court judge, Justice Sandhawalia issued notice to the Punjab government for a reply by 7 March, and asked the state to submit copies of the FIR and postmortem report before the court.
The bench also directed the central government to explain the disruption of internet services in Punjab and Haryana during the course of the agitation.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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