HC stays arrest in Kashipur farmer suicide case

Dehradun: Uttarakhand high court on Friday stayed the arrest of petitioners in a case linked to a farmer's suicide in Kashipur and directed the accused to cooperate with the investigation. The single bench of Justice Ashish Naithani also issued notices to govt and private respondents, directing them to file their replies within two weeks.Counsel for petitioners Kulwinder Singh, Divya Pandey and others had sought a stay on their arrest and the quashing of the FIR, arguing that they had been falsely implicated. Meanwhile, the state informed the court that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) had been constituted to probe the matter.The case stems from the suicide of Sukhwant Singh, a resident of Kashipur, who allegedly shot himself with a pistol at a hotel in Kathgodam area of Haldwani on Saturday night. Before his death, Sukhwant released a video on social media making serious allegations against opposition leaders and the police.In the video, Sukhwant had claimed he had been defrauded of around Rs 4 crore in a land deal and alleged that the police failed to act on his complaint and instead intimidated and threatened him. Based on the video and a complaint lodged by the deceased's brother, a case was registered against 26 people at Kashipur's ITI police station.