Navreet Singh, 27, a farmer who died after his body was crushed under the tractor he was driving after it toppled on the road at ITO, Delhi during Republic Day’s tractor rally, the police said. He had recently returned from Australia to his hometown in UP’s Rampur to celebrate his wedding
A police officer on Wednesday said that the dead body reached Rampur on Tuesday night and a post-mortem was conducted.
Navreet was persuaded by his uncles to visit Delhi on Republic Day to participate in the farmers' protests against the Centre's agriculture laws. In a video footage, Navreet Singh could be seen driving a blue tractor at high speed.
As the tractor rammed into the yellow police barricade, it flipped and Navreet came under the toppled vehicle leading to his death, the Delhi Police had said Tuesday.
"We came together to participate in the parade but never knew it would happen," a neighbour said.
The police denied that Navreet was shot by a bullet.
A senior Delhi Police officer said some farmers were driving their tractors madly in an attempt to hit the deployed police officer. "We saw the tractor hitting the barricades. Our personnel went to rescue him, but a group of agitating farmers stopped them," he said.
However, the farmers are claiming that Navreet was shot by the police, "The police fired a teargas at Navreet, one of the shells hit him on the head and he lost control of the steering wheel. The police didn't even help him," a farmer alleged.
Farmers are demanding an investigation as an eyewitness said that when the policeman fired the tear gas shell it hit Navreet’s head and he lost control over the tractor and it overturned.
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Several tractors in groups deviated from the planned route on republic day resulting in clashing with the police at several places, broke barricades and entered the Red Fort and ITO area which prompted the police to lathi-charge and use ear gas.
Chaotic scenes were witnessed at ITO, where hundreds of protesters could be seen chasing police personnel with sticks and ramming their tractors into the buses parked by police.