Deep Sidhu

Deep Sidhu was a Punjabi film actor and activist from Udekaran village in Muktsar district. He was 37 when he died. The Tribune reported that his father was an advocate who practised in Gidderbaha, and that in 2019 Sidhu managed Sunny Deol's election campaign in Gurdaspur.

He came to wide notice in the farmers' agitation of 2020 and 2021. On 26 January 2021, during the tractor rally, crowds reached the Red Fort and a Nishan Sahib was hoisted on the monument. Delhi Police accused Sidhu of instigating the crowd, and farmers' bodies blamed him and Lakha Sidhana. Sidhu said in a Facebook video that they had only hoisted the Nishan Sahib while exercising a democratic right to protest, and that the Tricolour was not removed from its pole.

Key moments

• 9 February 2021: arrested in connection with the Red Fort violence. He was held for over two months.
• Mid-April 2021: granted bail in one case and arrested again within hours on a second FIR, based on a complaint by the Archaeological Survey of India about damage to the Red Fort. On 26 April the judge called the second arrest "vicious and sinister", according to The Wire.
• 29 September 2021: announced Waris Punjab De ("Heirs of Punjab") in Chandigarh. He said it was formed for social awareness, not to win office, and would press for states' autonomy and rights. Wikipedia lists Amritpal Singh as the organisation's next head.
• 15 February 2022: died when his SUV hit the back of a truck near the Pipli toll plaza on the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal expressway in Sonipat district, Haryana, at about 8.30 pm. A woman travelling with him survived.

The dispute over his death: Police said the vehicle ran into a stationary truck. The Tribune reported on 16 February 2022 that the woman with him told police the truck ahead had been speeding rashly and braked suddenly. Simranjit Singh Mann, whose election campaign Sidhu had been supporting, alleged that the Centre was behind the death and asked for an inquiry by a senior Sikh judge (The Tribune, 18 February 2022). In a video reported by ThePrint in February 2023, the same woman said it was an accident and that Sidhu had been driving fast. Mann's allegation is his own, and none of the reports used here records a finding of conspiracy.

What he is remembered for: he is remembered as the man at the centre of the Red Fort case, which he faced as an accused until his death, and as the founder of Waris Punjab De, which he said was meant to press for the rights of the states. After his death his supporters held a candle march at Mandi Ahmedgarh (The Tribune).