M A I N   N E W S

14 BKU men freed on bail
Shubhadeep Choudhury
Tribune News Service

Jind, June 6
Fourteen Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) members, arrested in connection with a violent incident at Kandela village in December, were released on bail today. The BKU had demanded that they should be released from jail only by the withdrawal of the cases against them. To push its demand, the BKU yesterday withdrew its bail petition through its lawyer, Mr Surinder Singh Punia.

Mr Punia said the signatures of the accused in the bail application, which came up in the court today, were authentic, even as he alleged that it was the police which was instrumental in arranging for the BKU members’ bail.

In reply, Mr K.K. Rao, SP of Jind, claimed that the police had nothing to do with the BKU members being released on bail. “They had withdrawn one bail application but filed another through a different lawyer”, he said.

Those released on bail today included senior BKU leaders such as Mr Ramphal Kandela, Mr Mohinder Singh Ghirana, Mr Nafe Singh and others. Mr Ghasiram Nain, President of the BKU in Haryana, reacting to the release of the BKU leaders from jail, said it was not a victory for the union as the 14 leaders had been released on bail. “But we did not seek their bail, it was the government which arranged for everything”, he said.

Mr Bajinder Singh, a hard-line BKU leader who is camping at Kandela, while deploring the “government machination in arranging bail for the arrested BKU leaders”, claimed that the released leaders had signed the bail petition under duress.

“We are not annoyed with them. They must have been forced by the police to sign the bail petition”, said Mr Bajinder Singh, president of the BKU in Hisar district. He said the release of the BKU leaders on bail would have no effect on the ongoing agitation being spearheaded by the organisation in the state. “We have authorised Mr Ghasiram Nain to take every decision with regard to our stir. Only Mr Nain can call off the agitation”, he said.

With the release of the BKU leaders from jail, the two sides involved in the conflict have apparently come close to a compromise as the state government seemingly has also given up its reluctance regarding talking to Mr Nain about the ongoing agitation in the state. Two important state government functionaries reportedly contacted Mr Nain on the telephone at Kandela on the issue of the agitation last evening.

Official sources confirmed that Mr M.S. Malik, DGP of Haryana, spoke to Mr Nain on the telephone last evening. The sources said Mr Malik was prompted to talk to Mr Nain in public interest as the blockade of three inter-district roads in Jind and roads elsewhere in the state was causing a lot of problems to people.

During the conversation, Mr Malik asked Mr Nain to withdraw the agitation. Mr Nain reportedly replied that it would be called off if the cases filed against BKU leaders by the police in connection with the December 21 incident at Kandela village were withdrawn unconditionally. Mr Malik reportedly told Mr Nain that the state government would have to follow the legal procedures for withdrawing the cases and it could take some time. This, however, was not acceptable to the BKU chief, who reportedly insisted that the cases filed against BKU members must be first withdrawn by the police to pave the way for a compromise.

Talking to TNS, Mr Nain said Mr Ajay Chautala, MP and elder son of Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, also spoke to him last evening for calling off the agitation. “However, with Ajay Chautala, too, we reached a deadlock over the withdrawal of cases”, Mr Nain said. The conversation between Mr Nain and Mr Ajay Chautala, however, could not be verified independently.

The BKU chief, meanwhile, added that his conversation with Mr Ajay Chautala and Mr M.S. Malik, should not be interpreted as official dialogue between the BKU and the state government. “Official dialogue will take place only when the cases against BKU leaders are withdrawn”, he said, adding that if the administration was serious, it could withdraw the cases without losing much time.