24-year-old labor rights activist Shiv Kumar is also in jail in the same case in which Navdeep Kaur.
He is the president of the Workers’ Rights Organization, which is campaigning to get the arrears of migrant workers in Haryana’s Kundli Industrial Area (KIA). Naudip Kaur is a member of this organization.
Police say that Shiv Kumar was also present at the time of the incident on the 12th when the protesters attacked the police at the factory gate. In the two FIRs registered after this incident, serious sections related to illegal money collection and attempt to murder have been imposed.
But his colleagues and family claim that Shiv Kumar was not there. He says that action was taken against Shiv Kumar and other members of the organization because they raise the voice of the rights of the workers working in KIA.
Other members of the organization told the BBC that even on the day of the 12th, people of the organization, including most of the workers, were staging a strike outside a factory only to get an unpaid salary of a worker, where the police first came Lathicharge
He says that Shiv Kumar used to go with the rest of the people to get the dues of the workers due to his eye problem. They mostly used to meet near the tent of their organization engaged in the farmers movement on the Singhu border, where many workers came and pleaded for help from the organization to get their outstanding salary.
He says that on the 12th too, Shiv Kumar was sitting there.
KIA is actually the area of Sonipat adjacent to the Singhu border. This workers ‘organization had given its support to the farmers’ movement from the very beginning and set up their tent there.
According to the people of the organization, after this, even more workers, whose money was also trapped before the lockdown, used to write names for help. After this the campaign of this organization was further intensified.
It is also being said that members of the organization came under target because of supporting the farmer movement. First Naudeep and then Shiv Kumar were arrested in serious streams. Shiv Kumar is currently in Sonepat Jail.
Family charges, high court intervention
Shiv Kumar’s father alleges that even after several days of arrest, the police did not inform the family and neither Shiva was allowed to meet the lawyer.
Shiv Kumar’s father Rajveer told , “One of our acquaintances saw Shiv Kumar at the police station, then on January 31, we came to know that he was picked up by the police since January 16. It has come to light that the police have found him bad He has been beaten up. His glasses have been stripped, he does not see with one eye. Neither the police told us about the arrest, nor let the family and the lawyer meet. We were told that he is quarantine, so we cannot let him meet . “
Shiv Kumar’s father met him for the last time in the farmer movement only one and a half months ago. Then his father came to join the peasant movement with some people from the village.
The police have denied all these allegations and said that they were arrested on January 23, not 16, soon after which their family was told.
In an interaction with the BBC, Ravi Kumar, SHO of Kundli police station in Sonepat, said that Shiv Kumar was undergoing medical treatment, and he has evidence that there was no assault with Shiv Kumar.
But the family and the lawyer insisted that medical be done and be done in a hospital in Punjab. He alleged that he is not being allowed to meet Shiv Kumar by giving an excuse for quarantine, so that if there is any injury, he will be filled in so many days.
What is the police saying?
According to SHO Ravi Kumar, he and other policemen were assaulted on the 12th, with CCTV footage of which they have. He says that even before this, complaints had come against these people and on December 28, an FIR was also registered.
According to him, Shiv Kumar was first taken on a 10-day police remand for interrogation, after which he was sent to judicial custody at Sonepat Jail on two dates.
SHO Ravi Kumar said that the additional SSO, who is his junior officer, is investigating the case.
Who is Shiv Kumar?
Shiv Kumar is a resident of Debhu village of Sonepat. They belong to the Dalit community.
His father works as a laborer in the day by day and a government school at night. Shiv Kumar has three sisters and a brother. After studying 12th, Shiv Kumar took a two-year course in ITI and then started working in the Kundali Industrial Area.
His father said that he had problems in one eye from the 10th grade onwards, he stopped seeing with one eye and could not see properly without glasses from the other. He told that Shiv Kumar is also being treated in AIIMS.
