Indefinite sit-in at Patiala from Sept 20 seeking pardon for farmer activist

Chandigarh: A panel of activists is going to start agitation from September 20 with the demand to repeal the conviction of farmer leader of Barnala district Manjit Singh Dhaner whose life imprisonment sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court. A division bench of the apex court on September 3 had dismissed the petition to repeal the conviction of Manjit, 62, a resident of Dhaner village, and asked him to surrender in four weeks.

Following the SC order, protests were held at various places across Barnala district. Addressing a press conference at Chandigarh on Wednesday, the general secretary of peasant outfit Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Dakaunda) Jagmohan Singh said a campaign committee was gong to start an agitation under ‘Pakka Morcha ( indefinite sit-in )’ at Patiala to seek repealing of the conviction of Manjit.

“Our aim is to raise voice for repealing of the conviction of Manjit. We strongly feel justice has been denied to him. Our morcha will have thousands of people. However, we do not want to cause inconvenience to the general public,” he said.

Manjit and two others had spent one-and-a-half years in jail for a murder committed in Barnala court complex in 2001. Though the Punjab governor had granted pardon to three accused in 2007, the high court had set aside that order on March 11, 2008. However, the court had acquitted two accused — Narain Dutt and Prem Kumar — in the murder case while upholding Manjit’s conviction.

Manjit had filed two separate special leave petitions (SLPs) in the Supreme Court — one against the high court order of setting aside the governor’s order for pardon and other against his conviction in the murder case. The apex court had disposed of the SLP regarding the governor’s pardon in 2011.