Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday (March 7) ordered a judicial probe to investigate the death of 22-year-old farmer Shubhkaran Singh nearly two weeks after he was killed at Khanauri on the Punjab-Haryana border in the ongoing Delhi Chalo agitation by farmers.
In the interim order, the bench of acting Chief Justice G.S. Sandhawalia and Justice Lapita Banerji said that the court is of the considered opinion that the investigation regarding the death of Shubhkaran cannot be entrusted solely either to the State of Punjab or to the State of Haryana for obvious reasons, as both states have several things to cover up.
In such circumstances, the court said, the matter needs to be supervised by a committee headed by retired judge of this court.
“Keeping in view the above, we’ll constitute a committee headed by Justice Jaishree Thakur, retired judge of this court, who will be assisted by Parmod Ban, ADGP, Punjab and Amitabh Singh Dhillon, ADGP, Haryana,” the court order said.
As per the court order, the committee will submit a report on which police authorities will have jurisdiction to investigate the death of Shubhkaran, as the place of occurrence and the cause of death must first be confirmed.
“It is because one state is shirking its responsibilities, whereas the other is yearning to take control of the investigation,” the bench observed.
The court also added that the cause of Shubhkaran’s death and identifying the type of weapon from which the bullet/pellet emanated would also fall within the domain of the committee.
Apart from that, the high court bench also said that the committee shall also examine the issue whether the force which was used (to handle the farmers’ agitation) was commensurate with the situation.
The bench also said that the issue of compensation to be awarded on account of his death shall also be worked on. Both the states shall provide all facilities to the retired high court judge who is heading the committee and the officers nominated shall provide full assistance to her.
This exercise is expected to be completed within a month, said the bench, while deferring the matter to April 10.
Probe heading nowhere so far
The court’s order for a judicial probe came in response to a bunch of public interest litigations alleging infringement of the farmers’ right to protest peacefully, as well as seeking to assign responsibility for Shubhkaran’s death due to the lack of action on the part of both Punjab and Haryana.
As per the report submitted by Punjab’s government to the high court, which is now being widely shared on social media, the cause of his death is confirmed to be a head injury caused by a firearm.
Shubhkaran’s father, Charan Singh, on whose complaint the Punjab police filed a murder case last week, alleged that he along with his son and other villagers was in a trolley at Khanauri on February 21 when Haryana security forces began shelling protestors farmers with tear gas
He further said that when they went into nearby fields afterwards, the shelling continued towards that side as well.
“Soon, farmer leaders instructed us to sit in the trolley and as we started walking, Shubhkaran, who was a little ahead of me, was hit by a bullet in the back of his head,” he added.
“He fell and was taken to Khanauri hospital, where doctors declared him dead after about an hour.”
It took more than a week for the Punjab police to file an FIR in this case, since the matter regarding his death fell into a jurisdiction trap between Punjab and Haryana after the Haryana police claimed that he had died in their jurisdiction.
After pressure from farmers’ union leading the Delhi Chalo march, the Punjab police finally gave in and filed a ‘zero’ FIR into his death on the night of February 29.
Zero FIRs are filed in case of jurisdictional issues.
But since then, there has been no material progress in the probe into the circumstances leading to Shubhkaran’s death, even as the Punjab government paid him homage before its budget session and even announced Rs 1 crore financial relief to his family and a government job for his sister.
On the day of Shubhkaran’s death, the Haryana police claimed in the high court that a team was constituted, headed by DSP Jitendra Kumar of Jind, which attempted to approach Government Rajindra Hospital, Patiala (where Shubhkaran’s body was kept), to conduct the postmortem and record statements from the deceased’s family members. However, they were not allowed by the Punjab police due to the prevailing law and order situation.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Bikram Singh Majithia, a senior leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal, hit out at both the AAP government in Punjab and the BJP government in Haryana and said that despite the fact that the post-mortem confirmed his death due to a firearm injury, the investigation into his death has seen no progress.
Shubhkaran’s family initially declined government compensation but later accepted it after the Punjab police’s zero FIR.
Meanwhile, according to advocate Uday Pratap Singh, the high court also questioned the Haryana government on what kind of bullets and pellets its police had used on farmers and asked for details on the same.
Ever since the latest farmers’ protest began on February 13, farmers’ unions have alleged that the Haryana police used pellets and rubber bullets to disperse protesters.
As per data from Punjab’s health officials, more than 180 farmers have sustained injuries and many suffered laceration injuries due to tear gas shelling from the Haryana side.
On the contrary, the Haryana police too claimed several injuries to their staff as result of clashes with farmers.
Several farmers as well as police officials have died over the course of the protest due to heart attacks among other reasons.
This story has been updated with the court order details.
