Farmers' Protest: 'Masked Man' Claims He Was Forced To Lie About Conspiracy To Kill Farmers Leaders

Two days after a masked man surfaced at the farmers' protest site in Delhi, who claimed to be a party to a conspiracy to kill four of the farm leaders and disrupt the Republic Day tractor rally, denied his earlier statement on Saturday, January 23.

He alleged the farm leaders of forcing him to lie after abducting him, Deccan Herald reported.

The Haryana police said that it had found no evidence to support the allegations levelled against the accused Yogesh Rawat. The department said he had "cooked up" the conspiracy claims under fear after some volunteers at a protest site caught him and accused him of eve-teasing, reported Outlook.

During preliminary investigation, it was found out that none of his claims was true.

According to the Police, on January 20, Rawat had gone to Delhi to meet a relative and returned in the evening. He stopped at Prem Colony on GT road, one of the farmers' protest sites, for food. Later, he got into an argument with some volunteers, who allegedly accused him of eve-teasing, and took him to a camp and beat him up.

"We got his medical examination conducted, and there are some marks on his back, which he said was due to the beating," SP Jashandeep Singh Randhawa told the media.

The 21-year-old man was working in a factory in Sonipat but lost his job during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Police are also questioning his family members, including parents, brother, his friends etc.

The SP said that Rawat cooked up the story out of fear. "Some part of it was tutored and the rest he made it up by himself". The Police did not find proof for other allegations, including Rawat receiving calls from some landline phone, supplying arms and weapons.

A special team was constituted to probe the matter. "We carried in-depth investigations of who all he came into contact with during the past four months, but so far we did not get any proof to back any allegation which has been made (in the press conference)," Randhawa said.

On Friday, farmers presented the accused in the press conference, who claimed he was tasked to shoot four farm leaders and disrupt the tractor rally. Rawat had said that he and his team members were allegedly asked to pose as policemen and lathi-charge on the farmers if the situation goes out of control on January 26.

Rawat also named the police officials involved in the plan. Rawat claimed they had provided the team with the photographs of the people who were to be shot. SP Randhawa confirmed that the police involvement claim was not true, as there was no cop with that said name in the entire district.

Responding to the development, Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh termed the incident as the 'Destroy and Rule' strategy of the government after its 'Divide and Rule and Rule and Defame and Rule' strategy failed.

Also Read: BJP To Hold 'Rath Yatra' In Various Delhi-Riot Affected Areas Seeking Donations For Ram Temple