RAMPUR: Like many young farmers across the agri belts in Punjab, Haryana and UP, Navreet Singh would make the trip to Delhi’s Ghazipur border to join the protest every few days. The 24-year-old had just come home from Australia, newly married and was a vocal opponent of the new farm laws. On Tuesday, he was among the protesters on tractors that veered towards the heart of Delhi. Moments after his tractor turned turtle, people found him dead.
On Wednesday, the lingering question of how he really died hanging heavy, his family cremated him. His village with 8,000-odd people, Dibdiba in UP’s Rampur, had gone quiet, police presence marking every inch. While Navreet’s wife Mansweet (21) who is in Melbourne has not recovered from the shock, his grandfather Hardeep Singh Dibdiba who attended the cremation along with Navreet’s father, says, “He died a martyr.”