COURTESY HT  FEB 9

KARNAL FARMER’S ARREST FOR R-DAY VIOLENCE COMES AS SHOCK TO KIN
HT Correspondent

letterschd@hindustantimes.com

KARNAL : The arrest of a 59-year-old Karnal farmer, Sukhdev Singh, for his alleged involvement in the January 26 violence at Red Fort, Delhi, has come as a shock to his family members.

“My father is a decent and law-abiding man. He has never been involved in any criminal activity,” said Amarjit Singh, the younger son of Sukhdev, claiming that not even a single member of his family has faced any police case.

He said that his father is associated with BKU (Charuni) and had gone to Delhi on December 26 and said that he will come only after the three farm laws are repealed.

“He was staying at Singhi border and used make phone calls to us regularly. I had talked to him three days before his arrest,” he added.

“On Sunday evening, I got a phone call from a cop of the crime branch of Delhi Police. They told me about my father’s arrest from Chandigarh. We don’t know how he reached Chandigarh from Singhu border,” he said.

Sukhdev owns 21 acre agricultural land at Sanghoi village and lives in a dera about 10km from Karnal with his family.

Amarjit did not rule out the possibility that his father had gone to the Red Fort. “Hundreds of farmers were at Red Fort. That doesn’t mean that he was involved in hoisting the Nisan Sahib,” he added