Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Badal on Wednesday appeared before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) for the second time this month after the Kotkapura police opened fire on a crowd protesting the alleged desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib here in 2015.
At that time he was the Deputy Chief Minister in the SAD-BJP coalition government and was handling the Home portfolio.
Earlier, the SIT summoned Sukhbir Badal on September 6 and questioned him for more than three hours in the Behbal Kalan firing case, both the Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan cases were intertwined and followed the sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib. .
At that time the police had opened fire on the people protesting the sacrilege in Faridkot. Two people were killed in firing on protesters in Behbal Kalan, while some people were injured in Kotkapura.
The SIT, headed by Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) LK Yadav, is probing both the firing incidents.
The SIT had earlier questioned former Director General of Police Sumedh Singh Saini in the sacrilege case.
Saini was removed from the top police post by the then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal following incidents of sacrilege in the state and the violence that followed, in which the police force was accused of excesses.
Justice Ranjit Singh (Retd), who headed the commission appointed by the previous Congress government on alleged incidents of sacrilege and subsequent police firing on protesters, put the then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Akali Dal chief and then DGP Saini in the matter. Is. dock
In addition, he criticized the Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda, whose head and self-styled godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is currently serving a 20-year jail term for raping two of his disciples and life imprisonment for killing a journalist. Huh. of impurity.
Justice Singh made the remarks at the release of his 423-page book ‘The Sacrifice’ in January, when he was heading the government formation commission.
“The conclusion based on material and evidence is against both the then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and the then Director General of Police (DGP) Saini for not playing an active role (the latter with police firing on protesters after the sacrilege incident),” Justice Singh told IANS on the sidelines of the book launch here.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on April 9, 2021 quashed the previous police SIT report, which had given a clean chit to Badal and directed the state government to constitute a new team.
The High Court had not only dismissed the probe but also cast doubt on the methods and ordered the reconstitution of the SIT probing the case without IPS officer Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, who is now an AAP MLA.
Following the High Court’s direction, the then Congress government led by Captain Amarinder Singh constituted another SIT on May 7 to probe the incident.
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