Nihang held for lynching of Dalit Sikh at Singhu farm protest site

New Delhi: A day after a 35-year-old man was brutally lynched and strung up at the farmers’ protest site at Singhu border, the police on Saturday said they have arrested a Nihang Sikh, Sarvjit Singh, in the case.

Singh was taken into custody after he surrendered to the police on Friday night for his alleged role in the lynching, said police.

Police sources said Singh had come to Singhu border when the contingent of Nihang Sikhs had arrived there in the first week of December last year. At the border, he was the leader of a unit that tended to the horses.

Jashandeep Singh Randhawa, superintendent of police, (SP), Sonepat, said, “One Nihang Sikh has been taken into custody. He will be produced in the court later in the day. We are probing his role in the murder. The claim of desecration of holy book at the Singhu border is yet to be verified. It is a matter of investigation.”

In several videos that emerged on Friday night, Sarvjit Singh took responsibility for allegedly killing Lakhbir Singh, alleging that he had desecrated the holy book.

On Friday, the police had said that a preliminary probe had suggested that Nihangs had killed Lakhbir Singh, a Dalit Sikh from Cheema Kalan village in Tarn Taran, Punjab, as they suspected him of desecrating the holy book at a gurudwara at Singhu border.

Police had registered an FIR against unknown persons on Friday on charges of murder and common intention.

Police had said that they had received information around 5 am on Friday that Nihangs had hanged and tied a person to a barricade and his hand was chopped off. When the police reached the spot, the victim had died.

The Nihang Sikhs and protesters had initially refused to hand over the body to the police.

In several videos of the brutal lynching, the injured man could be purportedly seen lying in a pool of blood, with one arm tied to a rope and his chopped off left hand next to his face, as several men stood over and questioned him about his identity.

In one of the videos, he could be seen tied upside down while blood oozed from his chopped off wrist. He is seen pleading with protesters to untie him. (Agencies)