Two more Nihang Sikhs have surrendered before the Haryana Police in connection with the alleged killing and mutilation of a labourer at a farmers’ protest site in the state, NDTV reported on Saturday.
The two persons who have surrendered have been identified as Bhagwant Singh and Govind Singh. Visuals on the channel showed them walking with garlands around their necks as supporters cheered them.
With this, four people have been arrested in the case. The two others – Sarvjit Singh and Narain Singh – are also Nihang Sikhs.
The police on Friday had found labourer Lakhbir Singh’s body tied to a barricade with his hands and legs severed in Haryana’s Sonipat district. Singh was from a Scheduled Caste.
In a video, a group of Nihang Sikhs claimed responsibility for the killing. The video purportedly showed the injured man lying in a pool of blood. The Nihangs, surrounding him, could be heard asking his name and native village.
The Nihangs are an order of Sikh “warriors”, distinct in their blue turbans, who are always armed.
Sarvjit Singh had surrendered before the police on Friday. He reportedly said he had “no regrets” about the killing.
A court on Saturday sent him to seven days’ police custody.
The Punjab Police on Saturday arrested Narain Singh from Amritsar’s Amarkot village. He heads an organisation named the Misal Shaheedan Baba Baaz Singh Tarna Dal, according to the Hindustan Times.
Narain Singh told reporters that when he reached the spot of the killing on Friday, he saw that Sarvjit Singh had chopped off Lakhbir Singh’s hand. “Considering his sin, I hit his leg thrice with my sword and cut his foot,” he reportedly said.
Meanwhile, a post-mortem report said on Friday that Lakhbir Singh’s body had 22 injury marks, and that he died of excessive bleeding due to several deep wounds, the Hindustan Times reported.
“There were also signs of being tied with a rope and he was also dragged on the ground. His hand was hacked,” the newspaper quoted Dr Ekta, a member of the team that conducted the post-mortem, as saying.
Lakhbir Singh was cremated at his native village in the presence of his close family amid tight security arrangements.
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