Pilibhit (Uttar Pradesh), Feb 7 (IANS): Local farmers in Pilibhit district have demanded that the FIR lodged against the widow and brother of a protesting farmer, who had recently lost his life in Delhi, be immediately withdrawn.

Three persons, including the deceased farmer's wife and brother, were booked on Thursday for draping his body in Tricolour.

Local farmer leaders and politicians have expressed their support to the demand for withdrawal of the FIR.

Yogendra Yadav, who is the president of Swaraj India, said that he was not surprised with the police action.

"There is a technicality of law and the spirit of law. The technicality always needs to be reviewed in context of the spirit. If the protesting farmers wish to honour their martyr by draping his body in a national flag, they only enhance the dignity of the national flag which shows their love for the Tricolour and their sense of pride. In such a situation any government should celebrate rather than come up with the technicality," he said.

Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) district president Satvinder Singh Kahlon said the 'kisan panchayat' will take up the 'FIR issue'.

"We will give a memorandum of our demand, addressed to the Prime Minister, and it will be handed over to the officials, he added.

RLD's state vice-president Manjit Singh Sandhu and a former minister Hemraj Verma of Samajwadi Party have also demanded the withdrawal of the FIR.

Incidentally, another deceased farmer Navreet Singh's body was also wrapped in the national flag.

Singh had died when his tractor overturned in Delhi.

When asked, Additional Director General of Bareilly zone Avinash Chandra said, "An FIR should have been lodged in Rampur too as the national flag code allows this privilege only in certain cases."