Garhwal Post Bureau
Nainital, 9 Apr: Uttarakhand High Court today heard multiple petitions related to the Kashipur farmer suicide case, including pleas seeking a stay on arrests of those named in the FIR. The petitions also included pleas for quashing of the case. After hearing the matter, the single bench of Justice Rakesh Thapliyal extended the interim protection against arrest of those named in the FIR and directed the State Government to submit a progress report on the investigation. The Court also asked the petitioners to file their replies to the affidavit already submitted by the government.
The next hearing has been scheduled for 20 April. During today’s proceedings, the State Government informed the Court that a charge sheet has been prepared and twelve individuals have been named in the case. The Court directed the government to place an additional affidavit on record and fixed the next date of hearing accordingly.
Earlier, the Court had assured the petitioners that they would not be arrested and asked them to cooperate with the investigation. The State Government clarified that no arrests have been made so far and that the case is being monitored directly by the Director General of Police (DGP). The investigation has been handed over to a Special Investigation Team (SIT), though proceedings are yet to begin.
It may be recalled that the case is related to the night of 10–11 January, 2026 when a Kashipur based farmer Sukhwant Singh died by suicide at a hotel in Kathgodam, Haldwani. Before taking the extreme step, he had gone live on Facebook and levelled serious allegations against several people, including senior police officers such as the then SSP of Udham Singh Nagar, Manikant Mishra. He alleged that he had been cheated in a land deal and defrauded of nearly Rs 4 crores. Despite repeated complaints to the police, he had claimed no action was taken and instead he was threatened.
Following his death, an FIR was lodged at ITI police station on the complaint of his brother, naming 26 people including Amarjit Singh, Divya, Ravindra Kaur, Lovepreet Kaur, Kulvinder Singh alias Jassi, Hardeep Kaur, Ashish Chauhan, Girvar Singh, Mahipal Singh, Shivendra Singh, Vimal and his wife, Devendra, Rajendra, Gurprem Singh, Jagpal Singh, Jagveer Rai, Manpreet Kalsi, Amit, Mohit, Sukhwant Singh Pannu, Virpal Singh Pannu, Balwant Singh Baksoura, Bijendra, Pooja and Zaheer.
During today’s hearing, counsel for the petitioners argued that they had no connection with the case and have been falsely implicated in what was essentially a land dispute between two parties. They requested that their arrests be stayed and the FIR quashed. The Court, however, maintained its direction for the State Government to submit a detailed progress report, keeping the matter under judicial scrutiny.
