Note: This story ends with a video of Navreet Singh’s facial injuries that some readers may find disturbing.
New Delhi: The family of Navreet Singh, the young man killed during the tractor parade in the capital on January 26, has refused to accept the Delhi police claim that he died because his tractor overturned and insists he was shot, as farmers who claim to have witnessed the incident near ITO had originally claimed.
Navreet Singh’s cause of death is at the center of three sedition cases that police in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana have brought against journalists, including Rajdeep Sardesai of India Today, and Congressional politician Shashi Tharoor for blaming his death to a shot.
Delhi police were quick to release a video showing a tractor hitting a police roadblock and overturning. However, farmers at the site claimed that Navreet had been shot before he lost control of the vehicle.
The post-mortem report, prepared by a physician at the Rampur District Hospital, after an autopsy at 2am on January 27, concluded that “the cause of death is shock and hemorrhage as a result of head trauma. ante-mortem “, which Delhi Police officers have cited as consistent with their explanation.
The family, however, disputes this report.
‘We were deceived, now the courts will decide’
“The doctor told us that they had clearly seen the gunshot wound, and then we cremated his body peacefully. But we were deceived as [post mortem] report that came out did not say that. The doctor even told me that even though he had seen the gunshot wound, he couldn’t do anything because his hands were tied, ”said Hardeep Singh Dibdiba, Navreet’s grandfather, while talking to The wire on Friday, three days after his death.
Dibdiba, 68, has been part of the farmers’ protest from the beginning, he says, adding that he is the author of five books on Sikhism. However, after the death of his grandson, he is back in the Dibdiba village of Rampur in Uttar Pradesh.
Noting the mention that the post-mortem report makes of two “lacerated” wounds, one on Navreet’s chin and the other behind his ear, he said, “They [doctors] I have not directly mentioned the word bullet in the autopsy, but given the circumstances and the type of government that governs the state, they wrote as much as they could about it. Now the courts themselves will clarify the matter once we have a lawyer, “he said.
Navreet’s father, Vikramreet Singh, 46, said: “Everyone who saw his body saw that it was a gunshot wound. One of the doctors who did the autopsy said it was a gunshot wound, but he couldn’t write it down. ” She added that her son had recently returned from Australia and went to Delhi to participate in the farmers’ tractor parade. “We will finish his last rites on February 4 and then we will move forward with our plan of action,” he said.
UP police deny interference or pressure
Denying the family’s claim for gunshot wounds, the area’s highest ranking police officer, ADG Bareilly Avinash Chandra, said: “We had created a high-level medical panel for the autopsy. We have no reason to suppress or distort such a document because the matter belongs to the Delhi police. ”
One organization the family could approach, lawyers say, is the National Human Rights Commission, which could examine the video made during the autopsy and question the doctor who wrote the report.
What happened that day?
When this reporter saw Navreet Singh’s body dumped on the road at ITO on January 26, several farmers identified themselves as eyewitnesses to the incident and claimed that the young man had died as a result of being hit by a bullet.
Although no member of the police was seen within 300 meters of the body, the farmers told reporters that the police had “dispersed from the scene”.
Even after Delhi police released images showing Navreet’s tractor spinning a tortoise, farmers at the site stuck to their claims. “A bullet hit him and that is why he lost control of the tractor and had an accident,” said a man who claimed to be a witness.
Family says deep cut above ear is ‘exit wound’ from gunshot
The post-mortem report does not mention any gunshot injuries, but it does point to the presence of an inverted injury to the left side of Navreet’s lower chin and an everted injury above the right ear. The report, which The wire You have agreed, it lists six lesions, including those found on the eyebrow, chin, skull, ear ossicles, chest, and thigh.
The post mortem report mentions a “lacerated wound 2 cm x 1 cm in size on the left side of the chin, 1 cm below the left corner of the mouth”, adding that “the margins are inverted and deep.” Another injury, according to the report, was a “lacerated wound measuring 6 cm x 3 cm in [the] right ear, the margins are irregular and everted (from the inside out) The ossicles of the right ear and the cerebral matter exits [the] wound. “The report also mentions a” lacerated wound measuring 2 cm x 1 cm in the deep medial end of the right eyebrow, the margins are inverted “and a” traumatic swelling “over the skull.
The family claims that the injury to the right ear is the exit wound from the bullet. However, Manoj Shukla, deputy CMO and physician at the Rampur district hospital where the post-mortem report was prepared, said this was not the case. Talking to The wire On the phone Friday, he said something else may have hit his right ear. “Or he may have obtained the wrong document,” he added.
According to a senior physician at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, speaking with The wire On condition of anonymity, laceration wounds may be associated with gunshot wounds. A laceration is an injury that occurs when skin, tissue, and / or muscle are torn or split open. Lacerations can be deep or shallow, long or short, wide or narrow. Most lacerations are the result of the skin hitting an object or an object hitting the skin with force.
He said: “It appears that the post-mortem report has been carefully drawn up to remove any doubt about a gunshot wound.” He added that the nature of the injury to the lower chin and ear could be possible entry and exit points for a gunshot wound, especially since the two injuries form a straight line. He added: “If a bullet had passed through this man’s head, the jaw bone would have been fractured, but the report does not mention it. In fact, the autopsy report does not mention any X-rays performed. “
Navreet Singh’s father says doctors had assured them that the X-rays showed a gunshot wound, but they refused to show him. Dr. Shukla also confirmed that X-rays were taken during the autopsy. However, the autopsy does not refer to any of them.
The family also shared a video of Navreet’s face, pointing to the deep holes visible in his left chin and above his right ear, noting that it was a gunshot wound. While it is impossible for journalists or lay people to come to a firm conclusion, the family hopes that an independent investigation will establish the truth.
With input from Vijayalakshmi Nadar
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