Dalit Labour Activist Nodeep Kaur Granted Bail by Punjab and Haryana High Court

Dalit labour activist Nodeep Kaur was granted bail by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday in the third FIR registered against her. She had been arrested on January 12 and had got bail in the prior FIRs as well.

Live Law reported that the 23-year-old activist was granted bail. A bench of Justice Avneesh Jhingan granted her bail while hearing her plea and a suo moto registered in connection with both her matters.

Kaur, a leader of the Mazdoor Adhikar Sangathan (MAS), was arrested from a protest site near the Singhu Border on January 12.

Kaur had been denied bail twice despite her family levelling serious allegations of custodial brutality and sexual assault. She had been charged under many sections of the law, including attempt to murder and three FIRs were registered against her for rioting while armed with a deadly weapon, unlawful assembly, criminal intimidation, causing hurt to a public servant, extortion, trespass, snatching, assault and criminal force.

The courts had earlier denied her bail citing the seriousness of the charges. Quoting a medical report her lawyer, Advocate Jitender Kumar, there were wounds on her body and on her private parts. Rajveer, her sister, claimed that she was brutally assaulted in police custody and that her clothes were torn during an arrest carried out by male officers.

The Haryana Police has denied the allegations. In a status report submitted to the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday, the Haryana Police has described the accusations levelled against it as “baseless”.

The allegations by Kaur’s family came before a report by Article 14 mentioned that 24-year-old Dalit activist Shiv Kumar, who had been detained from the Singhu Border protest site on January 16, was tortured by the Haryana police in custody.

The report mentioned that a team of government doctors placed evidence on record which said that he had multiple fractures, torn toe nails and had been “mentally and physically abused in the police (sic) remand”. The four-page report was submitted to the High Court on February 23.

“Right foot swelling present and tender to touch….Swelling and tenderness on left foot. Nail beds of right 2nd and 3rd toe are broken and underlying skin in reddish in colour and showing healing changes. Left big toe shows blackish discolouration. Nails of left thumb and index finger shows bluish black discoloration with tenderness,” the report said, according to PTI.

In her plea, Kaur had also said that she was falsely arraigned as accused in an FIR lodged under various sections, including 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). In her petition, the labour rights activist mentioned that she was targeted and falsely implicated in this case as she was successful in generating massive support to the farmers' movement.

Kaur was lodged in Haryana's Karnal jail. She hails from Punjab's Muktsar district.

With PTI Inputs