Behbal Kalan case also hangs in the balance as IG Kunwar Vijay Pratap resigns

Lawyers dealing with the case said if the police officer retires, the final chargesheet may never see the light of day

With the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashing the special investigation team (SIT) report in the Kotkapura police firing case and now the probe team member inspector general of police (IGP) Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh putting in his papers, the fate of the Behbal Kalan case is also hanging in the balance.

Protests had erupted across Punjab after two Sikh protesters were killed in police firing during an agitation at Behbal Kalan in Faridkot district in October 2015. (HT Photo)

As Vijay Pratap had said one chargesheet is left to be filed in the firing cases, lawyers dealing with the Behbal Kalan case said if he retires, the final challan may never see the light of day.

Faridkot district attorney Rajnish Goyal, who led the prosecution in both the cases in the trial court, said, “One chargesheet is pending, but the SIT did not clear in which case (Behbal or Kotkapura). We have not received any official copy of the chargesheet. We are waiting for the complete order.”

Now, all eyes are on the hearing of a petition of former Punjab director general of police (DGP) Sumedh Singh Saini, suspended IGP Paramraj Singh Umaranagal and Kotkapura ex-station house officer (SHO) Gurdeep Singh Pandher cops by the HC bench of Justice Alka Sarin on April 20.

The three, who are accused in the Kotkapura case, had approached the court levelling allegations against Vijay Pratap, seeking his ouster from the SIT.

The last week’s order of quashing the SIT findings came on a petition of Pandher who claimed he was falsely implicated in the Behbal Kalan case as he submitted a complaint to the DGP against Vijay Pratap.

Two youths had died in the Behbal Kalan firing on October 14, 2015, while protesting against the desecration of Guru Granth Sahib at Bargari on October 12. The police also opened fire the same day on protesters at Kotkapura, leaving many injured.

Initially, IG Vijay Pratap was appointed to probe the Kotkapura case, while the Behbal Kalan case was entrusted to IG Arun Pal Singh and later SSP Satinder Singh who were also SIT members. In March 2019, the SIT filed first chargesheet naming former Moga SSP Charanjit Singh Sharma as accused in the case. The chargesheet was filed by the Satinder Singh-led team which was working separately from Vijay Pratap’s.

The probe into the Behbal Kalan case came to a standstill for nearly a year after a rift between the SIT members. It was in June 2020 that the investigation of the case was also entrusted to Vijay Pratap whose team made several arrests and named serving and retired police officers, including former DGP Saini and IG Umaranagal, as accused in the case.