Caught by farmers, man says had plans to incite violence, disrupt Tractor Rally and kill union leaders

A youth caught by protesting farmers at Delhi’s Singhu border has claimed that he was trained to incite violence during the ongoing farmers protests and the Tractor Parade on Republic Day. The man produced by farmers before the media with his face covered, claimed that there was an alleged plot to shoot four Farmers' Union leaders. He was later handed over to the Haryana police.

"Our plan was that on January 26...from the first line, a gun will be fired when the Delhi police tries to stop (the tractor rally). The orders are to first try and stop them (farmers). If they don't stop, the orders are to fire at them," the captured man, told the media last night.

"On 24th, the plan is to shoot the four people on stage. We were trained by Pradeep Singh...he is police SHO of Rai (station house officer or station in charge). Whenever he came to meet us, he would be wearing a mask," the man alleged. However Vivek Malik is the SHO of Rai police station for the past 7 months and there is no other policeman named Pradeep stationed there. The youth claimed that there were ten members, including two girls, who were assigned the task of inciting violence during the agitation.

The youth also said that he had played a role during the violence which had taken place during Jat agitation in 2016. He further claimed he was involved in lathicharge during a recent rally in Karnal district.

According to the youth, he was caught by the farmers when he, along with a girl, levelled false allegations of eve-teasing at the protest site at Delhi’s Singhu border.

A farmer leader said, “Weapons were to be supplied to this group. On January 26, they had to open fire on the police so that the cops think the farmers are firing on the police. They also had a plan to get the national flag down to hurt the national sentiments (during tractor parade) and incite people.”

“The youth has identified photos of four farmer leaders who were to be targeted by them in some manner. This operation was to be executed anytime after January 23,” he added.

The man is being questioned by the police in Sonipat and is stated to be around 21 years of age. The man was residing in Sonipat and had no previous criminal records. "He was not carrying any arms or ammunition. We are questioning him, but nothing has so far been found that points to any kind of conspiracy, as is being alleged," the official told the media.

Source: ndtv.com, indianexpress.com, timesofindia.com

Written by Siddhant Sharma