Singhu lynching: Villagers say victim ‘lured’, police get custody of accused

Residents of Cheema Khurd suspect a local from the village in Punjab‘s Taran Taran district had been “lured’ to the farmers’ protest site at Singhu near the Delhi border, where he was lynched allegedly for desecrating a holy book on Friday morning. 

Police have so far arrested one person in the case. Sarvjit Singh, a Nihang, was produced before a court and sent to seven days’ police custody after he surrendered the previous night. The police had sought his custody for 14 days to recover the murder weapons and question Sarvjit about four other suspects.

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“He was an addict and must have been lured to the Singhu border,” NDTV quoted Harbhajan Singh, a retired army personnel from Cheema Khurd, as saying. Harbhajan said the victim, Lakhbir Singh, had been spotted in the village four to five days ago. “He was unemployed and didn’t provide for his family. His father had also died,” he added.

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Others said Lakhbir had been falsely blamed for the desecration.

“He could not have done this; he was not that kind of a person. He was made to do this,” said Masa Singh, another resident from Lakhbir’s village.

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Lakhbir, 35, was found tied to an overturned police barricade at Singhu, where farmers have been camped for over 10 months to protest the contentious farm laws passed by the Centre. In a video that gone viral on social media, a group of Nihangs (a Sikh sect) are seen standing next to Lakhbir’s body, claiming he had been punished for desecration.

Lakhbir’s body bore over 10 wounds caused by sharp-edged weapons, according to news agency PTI.

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On Saturday, around 15 Dalit outfits submitted a memorandum to the National Commission for Scheduled Caste demanding action against those involved in Lakhbir’s killing.

The commission on Friday asked the Haryana Police to take strict action against the accused and submit a preliminary report into the investigation.