Farmer, son killed in Punjab’s Fazilka district after row over irrigating field

“A First Information Report with murder charges and under the Arms Act has been lodged against the four men. Out of them, Anmol has been arrested,” Pragya Jain, Senior Superintendent of Police, Fazilka, said. Jain added that a licenced weapon was used in the crime and raids were being held to catch the other accused.

On Thursday, Avtar, a marginal farmer who owns around 2.5 acres of land, and his son Harmeet were watering nine acres of land that they had taken on contract from Hardeep Kaur from Chuhar village in Ludhiana two years ago.

Villagers gathered in the fields of Paka village where murder incident happened. (File photo)

“Every Thursday, it is our turn to water the fields so my husband and son had gone there at around 4.30 pm. After some time, I went to give them tea and I found four people standing in the fields. They were fighting with my husband,” Avtar’s wife Sarabjit Kaur said in her statement to the police.

“Palwinder had a weapon in his hands while the others were holding spades. All of a sudden, Palwinder opened fire on my husband and son and the others attacked them with spades. They ran away afterwards,” she added.

Avtar and Harmeet were taken to a hospital but were declared dead.

Sources said that the fight began when Palwinder and his family members insisted that Avtar’s time to irrigate the fields was over. They had also alleged that Avtar and Harmeet were taking water from a water channel not meant for their fields.

The land they had taken on contract was earlier looked after by Palwinder Singh and his family, sources said. “Ever since the land was taken on contract by Avtar, Palwinder and his family members used to be at loggerheads with them. They always used to find reasons to fight…but we had no idea that they would go this far,” a villager said.

According to sources, Palwinder and his family members had tried to change the land records of Hardeep Kaur’s land when they used to farm on it and this was what led to the contract being handed over to Avtar.

While Avtar is survived by his wife and a mentally challenged son, Harmeet is survived by his wife and three-month-old son.