KARNAL, OCTOBER 30: A day after hundreds of Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) activists burnt down the lone field in Haryana where trial for genetically modified rice was under way, the Karnal district police have booked the union’s national spokesperson, Rakesh Tikait, and 100 others on charges of criminal intimidation and damage to property by fire.

UP-based Rakesh Tikait is the son of BKU president Mahinder Singh Tikait. So far, no arrests have been made.

The BKU had been threatening officials of Mahyco, the company that is conducting the field tests, and the police had been informed. Mahyco state coordinator Dr Pintu Kumar told The Indian Express today that he had informed the police about BKU’s threat to burn the field nearly an hour before the incident. “Around 4 pm on Saturday, I alerted the Bhadsu police post. They told me to get in touch with the police at Indiri since the area was not under their jurisdiction,” Kumar said. The police reached the field an hour after the damage was done.

Karnal SP Shivash Kavi Raj said the role of the police would also be probed and if they were found erring, action would be taken. Kumar alleged that the police had turned him away initially and refused to lodge an FIR.

Mahyco, in its complaint to the police, has pegged the losses at Rs 10 lakh. “Our research was only half done. We might have to restart it all again,” Kumar said, maintaining that the company adhered to all precautions essential for conducting the field tests for GM rice.

Haryana BKU president Gurnam Singh said the “tests were being conducted in violation of the rules’’. “We had informed the company representative prior to the incident. They did not turn up at the field to counter our objection,’’ he said. Shyam Lal, the sarpanch of village Hewatpur where the trials were being conducted, backed the BKU. “The company kept us in the dark. They said they were to do field tests for a hybrid variety,’’ Shyam Lal said.