Former Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal summoned by SIT in 2015 police firing case

Former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has been summoned by the particular investigation group probing the 2015 Kotkapura police firing incident to look earlier than it on June 16.

Mr. Badal was the chief minister when the sacrilege and subsequent police firing incidents occurred in Faridkot in 2015.

According to the summons, the nonagenarian chief has been requested “to appear in person with the relevant record before the Special Investigation Team on date 16.06.2021 at 10:30 am at PSPCL, Rest House, Phase-8 SAS Nagar (Mohali)” for investigation of the circumstances.

Reacting to the summons, Harcharan Bains, principal advisor to the Shiromani Akali Dal president, mentioned, “We will totally cooperate with the SIT.” Mr. Badal had been questioned in 2018 by the previous SIT probing the matter. He had then said the SIT probe was “politically motivated” and an attempt to defame him.

The Punjab government had formed the new SIT led by Additional Director General of Police L.K. Yadav to probe the Kotkapura police firing incident following the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The new SIT is investigating the two FIRs registered on October 14, 2015 and August 7, 2018 in connection with the Kotkapura incident.

The high court on April 9 this year had quashed a report by an earlier Punjab Police SIT into the 2015 firing at people protesting in Kotkapura over the alleged desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib in Faridkot district.

The court had then directed the state government to set up a new SIT, without Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, the Indian Police Service officer who was part of the earlier team. Singh later took voluntary retirement after the court order.

Police had also opened fire at a similar demonstration in Behbal Kalan, also in Faridkot, where two people were killed. A separate probe is underway in that case.

The new SIT has already questioned former police chief Sumedh Singh Saini and some other police officers.

Meanwhile, Congress MP Partap Singh Bajwa on Sunday dubbed the summoning of Mr. Badal by the SIT as a step in the right direction.

“The want of the hour is to conduct a good investigation whereby the position of the then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, the then Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and the then DGP Sumedh Singh Saini are introduced out,” mentioned Mr. Bajwa in an announcement right here.

“Once the investigation is concluded within a month, an application must be filed for day-to-day hearing of the case before the trial court in Faridkot,” he mentioned.

After the excessive courtroom quashed the report of the sooner SIT, a bit of Congress leaders, together with Navjot Singh Sidhu, has been focusing on their very own authorities for the alleged delay in supply of justice in sacrilege and subsequent police firing incidents in 2015.

The Congress in Punjab has repeatedly focused the Shiromani Akali Dal, which was in energy then in the state, over the incidents.