Singhu border lynching: Second accused arrested; confesses to cutting off victim's leg

A day after the mutilated body of a Dalit Sikh man was found tied to a barricade in Haryana's Sonipat area, the Amritsar police arrested the second accused in the case on Saturday. Baba Narain Singh was arrested from the Devidaspura Amarkot village near Jandiala Guru in Amritsar following the gruesome murder of 35-year-old Lakhbir Singh near the farmers' protest site at the Singhu border.

Speaking to the media following the arrest, SSP Rural Amritsar Rakesh Kaushal said a case was registered against Narain Singh in the Kundli police station of the Sonipat district. After his arrest, the accused confessed to having killed Lakhbir Singh. He said. 

"Lakhbir Singh's hand was chopped off by someone else before, so I mutilated his leg. Forty-five minutes later, he died. I have no regrets because he has disrespected Guru Granth Sahib," the accused shamelessly told the police. 

Later in the day, two more Nihangs were arrested after they surrendered before the cops in Sonipat. Both arrested accused Bhagwant Singh and Govind Singh are being taken to civil hospital by the crime branch and Kundli police.

Visuals from the site indicated that the man was attacked with sharp weapons and one of his hands was chopped off. The blood-soaked body was later taken for postmortem to a nearby civil hospital by the police.

DSP Hansraj said, "An inspector reached the site with a team and found that the man's body only had his undergarments on and his hands and legs were chopped off. He was found hanging on a police barricade."

SKM blames Nihangs on Singhu lynching

Sarpanch Sonu Cheema told Republic that Lakhbir was taken to the protest site after being manipulated. However, Samyukta Kisan Morcha has distanced itself from the incident and blamed the Nihangs for killing Lakhbir Singh.

"SKM condemns this gruesome killing and wants to make it clear that both the parties to this incident, the Nihang group and the deceased person, have no relation with Samyukta Kisan Morcha," it said.

With several visuals of Nihangs claiming credit for the murder surfacing, Haryana Police detained two Nihangs in the lynching case on Friday and an FIR was registered against them under sections 302 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). According to police, Lakhbir Singh was a Dalit Sikh labourer from Cheema Khurd village in Punjab's Tarn Taran district and was allegedly living with the Nihangs in their tent near the Singhu border.

Meanwhile, a plea has been filed in the Supreme court seeking dismantling of farmer protests at Delhi's borders following the incident. Lakhbir Singh, a resident of Punjab was heinously mutilated by a Nihang group and was left hanging near the main stage of the farmers' protest near the Singhu border.