A gangster-turned-social activist, accused of instigating protesters who led to the violence on Republic Day, claimed Wednesday that he only marched to the outer ring road in the national capital and never had an agenda to go to the Fort. Red.
Lakhbir Singh Sidhana, alias Lakha Sidhana, a native of the Sidhana village in Bathinda in Punjab, accused the government and police of conspiring against farmers’ agitation while claiming that he always asked for peace.
“The incidents that took place on Tuesday hurt me, but I am not involved in them. There is no video, photo or other evidence to show that I instigated people. We had marched onto the outer ring road following our farmer leaders peacefully. We never had an agenda to go to the Red Fort, ”said the 40-year-old.
Sidhana, who has been camping on the Singhu border since Nov. 26, also denied allegations that he shared the stage with actor Deep Sidhu, who is also blamed for instigating violence, on the Singhu border on Monday morning. night, claiming he tried to calm down. people who wanted to carry out the march on the outer ring road.
Sidhana claimed that almost 20 farmer leaders went to Ring Road with their cadres peacefully and returned shortly after. He claimed that popular sentiment was in favor of going to the Ring Road, as the farmers’ unions had announced first on January 2 and then on January 17 that they would hold the tractor rally there.
Sidhana, who heads the Malwa Youth Federation, which claims to carry out social welfare works in the villages, has more than 25 criminal cases registered against him in Punjab. They include murder, attempted murder, kidnapping and the Gun Act. A graduate of the humanities from the University of Punjabi, Patiala, Sidhana claims to have left the world of crime for social work.
He joined the Punjab People’s Party in 2011 and resigned in 2013.
Since then, Sidhana has gained popularity in the Malwa region, having helped marry off several girls from the weakest sectors and helping families in cash and in kind.
He made headlines in October 2017 for allegedly defacing English signs demanding that they be written in Punjabi. He was arrested and sent to the modern Faridkot jail, from where he did a live session on Facebook asking farmers not to burn rice stubble. A cell phone was recovered from his barrack and was booked for cheating. In May 2019, he and 60 other people were booked in an assassination attempt while holding a protest rally in the village of Badal.
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