Chandigarh 7th September : Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Badal on Tuesday appeared before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) for the first time in the 2015 Behbal Kalan police firing case.The SIT is investigating the firing case arising from the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib, is headed by the Inspector General of Police Naunihal Singh.
In the past, Badal, who was the Home Minister at the time the incident took place in the first place, was summoned by SIT on the 30th of August, but did not appear, claiming he didn’t get the summons.The next day he was required to appear in Ferozepur district’s Zira court in connection with another matter.
He was detained for more than three hours.
The SIT is investigating two firing incidents at Behbal Kalan and the Kotkapura.
For the Kotkapura incident the SIT has issued summonses to Badal for the 14th of September.
In a conversation with media outlets, Badal blamed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government for playing politics in delicate instances of police firings at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura.
While stating the fact that SAD and its top leaders are always willing to work with the SITs investigating the firings, he said it was unfortunate that the AAP government was playing politics with these issues to gain small political gains.
“Punjabis were determined that all of the perpetrators in these instances to be brought to justice and punished.
However, the AAP government is following in the footsteps of the previous Congress government and politicizing the an investigation into these cases.This is a huge mistake, especially considering that the high court has condemned the former Inspector General Kunwar Vijay Pratap over his misuse of his position in the public eye to promote his post-retirement political goals.”
In response to media inquiries, Badal said “the government already has the answers to questions SIT have asked me.They have the answers with them.Yet, they are engaging in this kind of exercise to denigrate the SAD and its leaders”.
In addition the SIT headed by the ADG of Police L.K.Yadav has previously questioned the former Director General of Police Sumedh Singh Saini in the sacrilege case.
Saini was dismissed from the police chief’s post by the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in 2015 in the wake of incident of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib and subsequent violence in the state in which the police force was accused of overreactions that led to two people dead.
Justice Ranjit Singh (retd) who was the head of the commission created by the former Congress government to investigate the alleged instances of sacrilege of Sri Guru Granth Sahib and the subsequent police firing on protesters, has put the Chief Minister of the time Parkash Singh Badal as the SAD patriarch, and later DGP Saini in the dock.
Additionally, he castigated the Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda, whose chief and self-styled godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for assaulting two of his followers, as well as a life sentence for a journalist’s murder, in connection with the crime of sacrilege.
Justice Singh made these comments in January following the release of his book of 423 pages “The Sacrilege” that was based on his investigation in the year he was the head of the commission that was set up by the government.
The act of sacrilege that took place in Behbal Kalan village of Faridkot district.The ensuing police firing at protesters that resulted in the death of two people was raked into the Congress against the SAD-BJP combination government in the 2017 Assembly elections.
Even in 2022 the scandals continued to shake the political sphere of the state as the various governments have been criticized for not delivering justice in the cases.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on April 9, 2021 dismissed the police SIT report, which gave an official chit to Badals and ordered the state government to put the new team.
The high court not only dismissed the investigation but also raised questions about the procedure and ordered the reconstitution of the SIT conducting the investigation with the absence of IPS officer Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, who is now an AAP legislator.
Following the high court’s order the then Congress government headed by Captain Amarinder Singh constituted another SIT on May 7 to investigate the incident.
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