Bathinda, 21 January 2025: A day after farm union activists attacked Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Rahul Bhardwaj and his gunman Jaswinder Singh in Jeond village, Bathinda, 11 Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta-Ugrahan) leaders, including president Joginder Singh Ugrahan, were booked for attempted murder, abduction, and other offenses, official sources confirmed Tuesday.
The incident occurred during a protest led by Ugrahan and his deputy, Jhanda Singh Jethuke, opposing a land demarcation ordered by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The exercise, meant to resolve a 70-year-old dispute over nearly 9,000 acres of farmland, has escalated tensions between original landowners and cultivator tenants.
The high court, later supported by the Supreme Court, ruled in favor of original landowners reclaiming a one-third share of the property.
However, cultivator tenants, backed by the farm union, oppose the order, citing a 2005 state amendment granting cultivators ownership rights. Jethuke argued, “Those who tilled the land for almost a century deserve to be its rightful owners.”
Bhardwaj, hospitalized with a fractured arm, stated in his complaint that the protesters blocked the road with a tractor-trolley loaded with stones. He alleged that they attacked him when he instructed them to clear the path for revenue officials. His gunman sustained injuries while shielding him.
Two FIRs were lodged at Sadar Rampura police station Monday evening. The first accused Ugrahan, Jethuke, and others of attempted murder, assaulting a public servant, and obstructing public movement under Sections 109, 132, and 285 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
The second complaint, filed by Gurlal Singh, a contracted revenue official, alleged that farm union activists held him and three colleagues hostage, preventing them from carrying out court-ordered land consolidation. According to Singh, the protesters forcibly took them to a gurdwara, seized their mobile phones, and issued threats before releasing them.
Meanwhile, BKU general secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan has since announced a “pucca morcha” (long-term protest) at Jeond to block further land demarcation efforts. No arrests have been reported yet, but officials indicated ongoing investigations into the clashes.
