Plea in Supreme Court seeks inquiry commission to look into farmer violence

New Delhi, Jan 27: A plea was filed on Wednesday in the Supreme Court seeking setting up of a commission, headed by a retired apex court judge, to inquire the violence during the protesting farmers' tractor rally in the national capital on Republic Day.

The plea has also sought direction to the authority concerned to lodge First Information Report (FIR) under relevant penal provisions against the individuals or organisations responsible for the violence and causing dishonour of the National Flag.

The tractor parade on Tuesday that was to highlight the demands of farmer unions to repeal three new agri laws dissolved into anarchy on the streets of Delhi as thousands of protesters broke through barriers, fought with the police, overturned vehicles and hoisted a religious flag from the ramparts of the Red Fort.

Delhi Police have registered 22 FIRs so far in connection with the violence in which over 300 policemen were injured, officials said on Wednesday.

The plea, filed in the apex court by advocate Vishal Tiwari, has said that a three-member inquiry commission under the chairmanship of a former top court judge and comprising two retired high court judges should be set up for collecting and recording evidence in the matter and it should submit a report to the court in a time-bound manner.

It said the farmers' protest against the agri laws is going on for over two months but it took a "violent turn" during the tractor parade.

"Unfortunately, the tractor march took a violent turn leaving injuries and destruction of public property. This incident also affected the daily life of the public. The Internet services were interrupted as government ordered the operators to suspend the same. In the present time, the Internet services are very essential to carry out the work in different professions, especially in advocacy as the courts and our Supreme Court is functioning online," Tiwari has said in his plea.

The petition said that clash between the farmers and police on the Republic Day had caught the attention of the entire world.

"The matter is serious because when the protest was going on peacefully for last two months then suddenly how it turned into a violent movement and led to violence on January 26. The question for consideration in national security and public interest arises that who is responsible for creating the disturbance and how and who turned the peaceful farmer protest into violent movement or how and who created the circumstances which let the protest to turn violent," it said.

"The blames are from both sides and the matter is to be inquired by an independent agency, that is, by setting up an inquiry commission under the chairmanship of a retired Supreme Court judge," the plea said.

It said there might be some conspiracy by some "notorious forces or organisations" to cause disturbance and damage the peaceful protest and create clash between police and protesting farmers.