Amid calls for intensifying farmers' protest and action against IAS officer Ayush Sinha for his "crack their (farmers') heads" remark, Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij on Thursday, 9 September, said that he will probe the "the entire Karnal episode".
The minister went on to caution farmers that if they're found guilty upon investigation, action will be taken against them.
"We will probe entire Karnal episode, not just Ayush Sinha. We can't punish officers without a probe," Vij stated, adding, "If farmer leaders are found guilty we will also take action against them," NDTV quoted.
Reacting to the statement, SKM said that the Haryana government has been exposed for its anti-farmer agenda.
"It tried to disrupt the farm movement from the very beginning, and has filed numerous cases against farmers and farm leaders. Yet, it promotes and supports the officer who ordered to 'break heads' of the farmers, and refuses to take action against them," the SKM said in a statement.
After the district administration refused to compensate injured protesters and take action against officials for lathi-charging farmers, the farmers who held a march and gheraoed Karnal’s mini-secretariat on Tuesday continued to sit in protest.
As per media reports, thousands of more farmers have arrived to join the dharna on Wednesday morning.
The SKM has said that farmers will continue to gherao the mini-secretariat until Sinha is suspended and the family of the farmer, who had been injured during 28 August's protests and later died due to a heart attack, is compensated.
In a video that had gone viral on social media, SDM Sinha had ordered policemen to 'break the skulls' of the protesting farmers.
On Wednesday, talks between the farm leaders and the Karnal district administration officials had failed. "By refusing to even order an inquiry against murderous official Ayush Sinha, Khattar government is clearly demonstrating who actually gave orders of breaking farmers’ heads," the SKM said in a press release.
(With inputs from NDTV)
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