On a petition seeking court-monitored SIT probe into the death of a farmer whose tractor overturned during the tractor rally on Republic Day, the Delhi High Court on Thursday sought a status report from the Delhi Police.

Hardeep Singh, the grandfather of Navreet Singh, the farmer who had died at the ITO area in Delhi on Republic Day while participating in the tractor rally, has moved the Delhi High Court seeking court-monitored Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the incident.

The Delhi Police informed Justice Yogesh Khanna that a “generic FIR” has also been registered by Delhi Police. The matter will now be heard on February 26.

On January 26, Navreet Singh died after his tractor overturned after ramming into police barricades. The accident was captured on CCTV camera. Deceased’s grandfather Hardeep Singh has, however, claimed that he was allegedly shot by policemen, due to which he lost control of the vehicle.

In its defence, the Delhi Police had released a video showing a protester speeding and running over barricades with his tractor near ITO, resulting in the vehicle overturning. A post-mortem report revealed that the protester died due to the accident.

Deceased’s grandfather Hardeep Singh moved the court asserting that he was allegedly shot by policemen, due to which he lost control.

The plea has sought for a court appointed and monitored Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe. It also sought for SIT to file periodic status reports to ensure time-bound court-monitored investigation.

The petition said the forensic experts, who reviewed the description of injuries in the post-mortem report, independently opined that the injuries were consistent with firearm or gunshot wounds and could not have resulted from the tractor overturning.

The petitioner, however, contended, “The haste with which Delhi Police made public statements declaring incident to be an accident, as well as registered FIRs against senior journalists who have pursued the possibility of Navreet Singh’s death having resulted from a firearm injury, inspires no confidence that Police would conduct a fair and honest investigation into the death of his grandson.”

(With IANS inputs)