Karnal farmer-police clash: One-man inquiry commission begins probe

Chandigarh, October 11

The Haryana government constituted one-man commission to inquire into the sequence of events leading to violence—including police lathicharge on protesting farmers—at Bastara toll plaza in Karnal began its probe on Monday.

The state government had last month appointed Justice Somnath Aggarwal, a retired judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, as Commission of Inquiry. Before leaving for Karnal, Justice Aggarwal said the inquiry commission will try to complete the probe at the earliest and submit the report to the state government.  

Replying to a question here, he said since the commission has to inquire about the entire sequence of events leading to the incident at Bastara toll plaza in Karnal on August 28, “that will take four to five months time”.

The state government appointed the commission “in a bid to ensure fair and transparent inquiry to inquire into the sequence of events leading to incidents at Bastara Toll Plaza in Karnal on August 28”, an official statement had said here last month, while pointing to the decision taken in this regard by the state cabinet.

“The commission of inquiry will inquire into the circumstances leading up to and including the action by the Police at Karnal on August 28, and the use of force against the demonstrators,” the statement had said.

“The commission will also ascertain persons responsible for said situation and further will inquire into the role of (IAS officer) Ayush Sinha, the then Sub Divisional Magistrate, Karnal, in the action by the police on August 28,” it had said.

The inquiry commission will complete the probe and submit the report to the state government within a period of one month from the date of publication of notification in the official gazette, it had said.

The Haryana government had last month ordered a judicial probe into the clash between farmers and police in August.

About 10 protesters were hurt in the clash with police when they tried to march towards the venue of a BJP meeting.

Sinha, a 2018-batch IAS officer was caught on tape allegedly telling policemen to “break the heads” of farmers if they breach the barricades near the spot where the BJP’s event was going on. — PTI