After farmer protest, a hunt for ‘stolen’ tractor-trolleys strikes dirt in Punjab

An excavator dug up the ground under the supervision of a duty magistrate, as around hundred-odd farmers kept a close watch.

Farmer unions under the banner of Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) say the recovery validates their allegation that equipment worth crores of rupees was taken away after police dismantled their protest camps on March 19, and systematically “stolen”.

Of the 20-25 tractor-trolleys that went missing from the Shambhu border alone, around 10 were recovered soon after from nearby villages, one was found parked at a vacant plot in Ambala, not far from the protest site, and another at Patran, said Manjit Singh Niyal, a leader of the BKU Ekta Azad which is a part of the KMM.

Five of these remain parked at the Kheri Ganduan Police Station as case property, while FIRs regarding another five tractor-trolleys were lodged, he added. On September 22, under farmer pressure, the Patiala police announced a probe by its Crime Investigating Agency.

BKU Ekta Azad members inside the house of executive officer of Nabha Nagar Council on Wednesday. (Express photo)

“From Nabha alone, we have now traced three missing trolleys. Our volunteers are working round the clock,” Niyal said, adding that the farmers were forced to hunt for the vehicles as police would not do so. He attributed Wednesday’s breakthrough to their “monitoring of the Nabha Nagar Council’s activities day and night”.

Identifying the parts recovered as belonging to “farmer Paramjeet Singh of Kapurthala”, Gamdoor Singh, the leader of the BKU Ekta Azad, said: “We sat outside EO Gill’s residence for a whole day taan ki eh koi gadbad na kar sakan (so that there is no hanky-panky).”

The Crime Investigating Agency is cataloguing the items recovered from the residence for forensic matching, Davinder Singh, in-charge, Patiala, said. “We will investigate the case fairly. No culprit will be spared.” The Patiala SSP has called the farmers for a meeting Friday.

Farmer unions claim Wednesday’s recovery directly links AAP leader Pankaj Kumar ‘Pappu’, the husband of Nabha Nagar Council president Sujata Chawla, to the theft of their vehicles. Pappu, who allegedly used EO Gill’s residence, is already facing two FIRs, registered on August 26 and September 22, and is out on bail.

A source said that Pappu’s wife Chawla was just “a proxy president”. Gamdoor Singh said: “Pappu holds regular meetings of the Nabha Nagar Council from one of the rooms of the EO’s residence.”

Chawla, incidentally, has been on leave since August 27, and a majority of the councillors across parties have demanded her removal.

Gill said that while the residence was allotted to him, he lived at his village house.

Between February 13, 2024, and March 19, 2025, the KMM and Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) had staged protests at the Shambhu and Khanauri sites, bordering Haryana, demanding a legal guarantee for MSP. On March 19, when most farmer leaders were in Chandigarh for talks with Union ministers, the Punjab Police had launched a sudden operation to clear the two sites.

Later, farmers alleged that many of their tractor-trolleys parked at the two sites went missing.

Gamdoor Singh said that they first stumbled upon the tractor-trolleys resembling their own at Nabha Nagar Council a day after the protest sites were vacated.

In August, after tractor parts were recovered from a workshop allegedly linked to Pappu, the first FIR was lodged against him. On September 22, following a protest outside the Deputy Superintendent of Police’s office by the KMM, a second FIR was lodged against Pappu. No arrests have been made in either case, with Pappu getting bail in both.

BKU Ekta Azad state president Jaswinder Singh Longowal said the incident “exposed the dirty face of the AAP government”. He called for the immediate arrest of Pappu and the removal of Chawla as Nabha Nagar Council president.

In a Facebook Live on Tuesday, Pappu denied the charges, saying: “I am repeatedly being labelled ‘trolley chor’ without any proof. There has been no recovery of any stolen vehicle from me.” He called the accusations part of a tussle for control of the Nabha Nagar Council.

Niyal said the KMM will meet on November 23 to decide the next course of action.

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