Wheat on NRI land in Moga harvested under police cover - 100-strong force gathers around contract farmer to prevent ‘hostile takeover’ by Akalis

Thursday, 30/04/2015

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CHANDIGARH: The Punjab Police NRI wing had to gather a 100-strong task force around a farmer on Wednesday to protect him from hostile Akalis while he harvested wheat on 14 acres at Badhni Kalan village in Moga district.

Farmer Jagjit Singh Rania, who is cultivating the land of Canada-based Nirmal Singh, stands in front of a board that reads: ‘This land legally belongs to Mohinder Singh’. Mohinder is facing a criminal case for grabbing this land.

Mobilised from three police stations, the force cordoned the field to prevent members of the state’s ruling party from carrying out their threat of violent takeover of the land that belongs to non-resident Indian Nirmal Singh, who lives in Toronto, Canada, and which the farmer ploughs on contract.

On Tuesday, NRI wing inspector general of police Gurpreet Deo had instructed the Moga senior superintendent of police to look into the farmer’s complaint that Akalis had told him to abandon the land and its standing crop to them. Confirming the development, deputy superintendent of police Gurcharan Singh Goraya told HT on telephone from Moga that: “Crop harvested, the matter stands resolved.”

He was reluctant to explain why the police had taken no action against the hostile men led by one Mohinder Singh of the nearby village of Lalto Kalan, who enjoyed the patronage of Kuldeep Singh, former Akali sarpanch of Choorhchakk. The duo is under trial for an alleged attempt to grab this land by fraud, and has once taken it under possession.

On Wednesday morning, the police called Mohinder Singh to the Badhni Kalan police station to not let him near the field under harvest.

“The man’s nephew, however, got there with his associates in six vehicles,” contractual farmer Jagjit Singh Rania told HT on telephone.

The police, who didn’t allow the local press photographer to shoot the scene, now seek a formal written complaint against Mohinder Singh and other intimidators, which Rania is afraid to lodge. He has been farming the NRI’s land for more than a year now.

Land owner Nirmal Singh had to fly down to Punjab thrice last year to file a case after correcting the revenue record from which his name had been omitted fraudulently.