Karnal Protest: Deadlock Between Farmers & Haryana Govt Ends, Probe On August Lathi-Charge Ordered

The joint press conference comes after farmer unions met the Haryana government representatives on Friday at the mini secretariat in Karnal.

New Delhi: The Karnal administration and farmer leaders held a joint press conference on Saturday where they announced an end to the protest being held against the recent lathi charge.

"Following a meeting between government officials and farm leaders, Haryana government orders a probe on the August 28 Bastara toll incident," Additional Chief Secretary Devender Singh said, as quoted by news agency ANI.

The Additional Chief Secretary informed that the probe will be conducted by a retired High Court judge and will be completed in a month. Former Karnal SDM Ayush Sinha who was caught on camera allegedly telling policemen to "crack their (protestors') heads" will be on leave in the meantime.

Additionally, it was announced that two family members of deceased farmer Satish Kajal will be compensated with jobs at DC rate on sanctioned posts.

Speaking to reporters over their demands that have been recently agreed upon by the Haryana government, Farmer leader Gurnam Singh Charuni said, "We had demanded to conduct a probe into the August 28 lathi-charge on farmers by a High Court judge because if the administration lodges an FIR then there are more chances of the case getting weak and the complaint being cancelled and many times it also gets quashed by the high court".

"But if the high court judge will conduct an enquiry, then there are no chances of the case getting quashed. So we had demanded that the investigation should be ordered and it should be conducted only by a high court judge. This demanded was accepted by the government. Till the time the former Karnal sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Ayush Sinha will be on leave. The investigation will be completed within a month," he elaborated, as quoted by ANI.

He further added that "earlier we had demanded a job for one member but since the loss was more, we then demanded two jobs to which the administration agreed to. We are satisfied. The meeting between the farmers and the state government ended at a positive note with all our demands being agreed upon".

This comes after farmer unions met the Haryana government representatives on Friday at the mini secretariat in Karnal.

Additional Chief Secretary Devendra Singh and Deputy Commissioner of Karnal Nishant Yadav participated in the meeting on Friday evening. The farmers' side was represented by Chaduni and other state leaders, news agency IANS reported.

Farmers led by Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait, marched from Anaj Mandi to the mini secretariat on Tuesday and since then the farmers were staging a sit-in demonstration there. They sought action against IAS officer Ayush Sinha, the then Karnal SDM who was caught on camera allegedly telling policemen to hit the farmers on their heads if they crossed the line during their protest on August 28.

The agitating farmers were also seeking Rs 25 lakh compensation and a government job for kin of the farmer who died in the incident, and Rs 2 lakh compensation each for the injured persons.