SHO, SI suspended, 10 shunted after farmer kills self post-FB Live, accuses cops of harassment in land case

RUDRAPUR: Two police personnel, including a station house officer (SHO), have been suspended with "immediate effect" and 10 cops sent to Police Lines on Monday after a 40-year-old farmer from Uttarakhand's Udham Singh Nagar allegedly shot himself in the head in Haldwani over a four-year land dispute. Moments before his death early on Sunday, Sukhwant Singh went live on Facebook purportedly reading out from a "nine-page suicide note", blaming the police for "mental harassment and inaction".Directing the authorities to investigate the case "fairly and in a transparent manner", chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, on Sunday, had ordered a magisterial inquiry led by Kumaon commissioner Deepak Rawat. Soon after, SHO of ITI police station, Kundan Singh Rautela, and sub-inspector Prakash Bisht of the same thana were suspended, and departmental proceedings initiated against them. Ten police personnel, posted at Paiga outpost under ITI, were shunted to Police Lines, Rudrapur. They included the outpost in-charge SI Jitendra Kumar and assistant-SI Somveer Singh.Besides the action against the cops, US Nagar SSP Manikant Mishra also asked for a separate, detailed probe into the incident, and assigned SP (crime) to submit a report.Singh's kin alleged that repeated complaints were ignored by police after he was "cheated of around Rs 4-crore in a land deal". The farmer belonged to Paiga village in US Nagar's Kashipur area.Singh had claimed on FB Live that "he had lost faith in the justice system as false cases were being used to pressure him into a compromise". Police had earlier said that there were multiple cases registered against Singh and they had described the latest incident as "merely a case of financial dispute". Preliminary investigations had found that Singh attempted to shoot himself in front of his wife, Pradeep Kaur, and their 12-year-old son at a hotel in Gaulapar in Haldwani around 2.30 am on Sunday. A brief struggle ensued as his wife tried to snatch the weapon, during which she sustained minor scratches. Pradeep and her son rushed to the hotel reception to seek help when Singh, who was alone in the room, fired a shot at his head.