After getting bail from the Punjab and Haryana High Court a day before, Farmer activist Navdeep Singh walked out of Ambala Central Jail in a case registered in connection with farmers' February 13 'Delhi Chalo' march and was honoured by various farmers' outfits on Shambhu border in Punjab on Wednesday evening.
Earlier in the day, farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher claimed that the Haryana Police detained a few farmer leaders who had gone to Ambala to bring Navdeep Singh to the Shambhu border to honour him after his release from jail.
However, they were released in the afternoon, he said.
Navdeep Singh, a native of Jalbera village near Ambala, was arrested by the Haryana Police from Mohali on March 28 on various charges, including rioting and attempt to murder. He walked out of jail after almost four months on Tuesday evening.
Navdeep Singh became famous as the "water cannon man" after he climbed atop a police water cannon in November 2020 during the farmers' agitation against the now-repealed farm laws. On February 13 this year, farmers from Punjab led by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha began a march to Delhi to press their demands, including a legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP) for crops.
They were stopped by the Haryana Police, who had set up barricades, including cemented blocks, on the Ambala-New Delhi national highway. The farmers had then clashed with police personnel. They have been camping at Shambhu and Khanauri points along the Punjab and Haryana border ever since.
On July 10, the Punjab and Haryana High Court ordered the Haryana government to open the barricades at the Shambhu border within a week on an "experimental basis". The court also directed the Punjab government to ensure that the protesters gathered in its territory are "duly controlled as and when the situation so requires".
The Haryana government has moved the Supreme Court challenging the high court order. The top court will hear the matter on July 22.