R-Day violence: HC allows farmer’s kin to seek experts’ view on autopsy report

NEW DELHI:  The Delhi High Court on Thursday granted time to the family of a 25-year-old farmer, who died after his tractor overturned during the farmers’ protest rally on Republic Day, to seek the opinion of experts on his post mortem and X-Ray reports. The court also asked the Delhi Police to allow the family to view the CCTV footage of the spot where the incident took place. 

Justice Yogesh Khanna was hearing a plea by deceased Navreet Singh’s grandfather—Hardeep Singh —claiming that the victim suffered gunshot injuries to his head. However, both the Delhi and Uttar Pradesh Police had told the court that Navreet Singh did not suffer any gunshot wounds.

Advocates Vrinda Grover and Soutik Banerjee, representing Hardeep Singh, said the family needs time to seek experts’ evaluation of the material provided to them by the police which included post mortem report and video and X-ray report of the deceased.

The high court had earlier directed the Delhi health secretary to constitute a board of medical and forensic experts and also a radiologist to examine the X-Ray report of Navreet Singh. His post mortem was conducted at Rampur district hospital in Uttar Pradesh. It had also asked the doctors of Maulana Azad Medical College to prepare the X-Ray report from the original X-Ray plate which has been received by Delhi Police from the Uttar Pradesh police.

The petition has sought a court-monitored SIT probe into the death of Singh. The petitioner’s counsel had earlier contended that the way Delhi Police has conducted itself in the matter “does not inspire a shred of confidence”. She had argued that this indicated that the victim lost control of the tractor and it overturned as he was shot by the police personnel.

The Delhi Police has maintained that according to the post-mortem report the farmer died due to a head injury as a result of the accident. Citing the CCTV footage, the police said that Singh was driving the tractor at high speed and the vehicle overturned after hitting the barricades. It had said that the footage also shows that no police personnel fired upon the vehicle or the driver. Protesting farmers had clashed with the police in city on January 26 during a tractor parade to highlight their demands.With PTI inputs