R-Day violence: Farmer leader from Jammu taken into custody by Delhi Police

A prominent farmer leader from Jammu was taken into custody by the Delhi Police here for his alleged involvement in the violence during farmers' tractor parade against the new agri laws in the national capital on Republic Day, officials said on Tuesday.

Jammu and Kashmir United Kisan Front Chairman Mohinder Singh, a resident of Chatha area of Jammu city, is the first person to be arrested from Jammu in connection with the January 26 violence.

He was taken into custody on Monday night and immediately shifted to Delhi for questioning, they said.

Thousands of protesters had clashed with the police during the tractor parade called by farmer unions on January 26 demanding repeal of the Centre's contentious farm laws.

Many of the protesters reached the Red Fort driving tractors and entered the monument, and some of them even hoisted religious flags on its domes and a flagstaff at the ramparts.

Singh's family, however, said that he was innocent and demanded his immediate release.

He (Singh) informed me that he was called by the Senior Superintendent of Police (Jammu) and was visiting Gandhi Nagar Police Station before his mobile got switched off. Upon enquiring, I came to know that he was arrested by police and shifted to Delhi, Singh's wife told reporters.

She claimed that her husband was at the Delhi border and not Red Fort when the violence broke out.

He went alone to see the SSP because he was not afraid as he had done nothing wrong, she said.