Channi writes to Rupnagar police to cancel FIR against farmers

RUPNAGAR: Two days after police registered a first information report (FIR) against 49 farmers for protesting against Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu, when he was in Rupnagar district’s Chamkaur Sahib on July 23, cabinet minister Charanjit Singh Channi has written to the police to cancel the case.

“I directed the police to take back all FIRs,” Channi tweeted. His letter to the police says, “Neither I nor any Congress worker

has filed a formal complaint or recorded any statement with the police against the farmers.”

“I stand by farmers in their crusade against the farm laws and I shall always be with them raising their voice,” another tweet on his handle read.

Sidhu, along with Channi and PCC working president Kuljit Nagra, visited Chamkaur Sahib to pay obeisance at a gurdwara when they faced farmers’ wrath, who showed them black flags.

Following the protest, a case was registered against district president of the Kirti Kisan Morcha Jagmandeep Singh, Kulwant Singh Saini, Jagdeep Kaur, Satnam Singh Sohi, sarpanch of Behrampur Jimidaran, and 45 unidentified persons under Sections 283 (danger or obstruction in public way or line of navigation), 323 (voluntary causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint),148 (rioting) and 149 (unlawful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code on a complaint from one of the cops.

Farmers also protested on Monday. Seeking cancellation of FIRs, they protested at the Solkhian toll plaza in Rupnagar. Jagmandeep Singh, district president of Kirti Kisan morcha, said that in its complaint, the police had alleged that farmers assaulted Congress leaders at the local gurdwara and attempted to block the cavalcade of Sidhu and Channi. “It is a fabricated complaint registered at the behest of Congress leaders. We raised slogans against Sidhu and showed him black flags, seeking an apology from him for his comments against farmers,” he said.