E-Paper
HC reconstitutes SIT to probe murder of sacrilege case accused
The new SIT to probe murder of sacrilege case accused has been ordered to be headed by an additional director general of police and constituent members of the SIT would not be lower than the rank of senior superintendent of police.
: The Punjab and Haryana high court has ordered reconstitution of a special investigation team (SIT) to probe into the death of Dera Sacha Sauda follower Mohinder Pal Singh Bittu, an accused in the 2015 sacrilege case, who was murdered in the Nabha jail.
The high court bench of justice Raj Mohan Singh acted on the November 2021 plea of Santosh Kumari, Bittu’s wife who had demanded probe by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The high court bench, taking note of the facts that SITs with high-ranking officers have been constituted to probe 2015 sacrilege cases, directed that the composition of the present SIT into his murder shall be revisited in view of allegations in the diary note against senior officers.
The new SIT has been ordered to be headed by an additional director general of police and constituent members of the SIT would not be lower than the rank of senior superintendent of police. The new SIT has been ordered to conduct the probe and submit report to concerned court at the earliest.
Bittu, who was booked in the 2015 sacrilege case and arrested three years later, was killed by two inmates Maninder Singh and Gursewak Singh, both serving life terms for murder, on June 22, 2019 with iron rods.
On September 5 that year, police had filed a chargesheet against four persons, including the attackers. Thereafter, the Patiala court framed charges against them and the trial is underway.
The plea alleged that Bittu was brutally killed in a larger conspiracy using judicial tools when he was lodged in the Nabha jail and the murder was committed in collusion between the police and politicians who were named by Bittu in the note.
“The police officers mentioned in the note subjected my husband to third-degree torture methods to pressurise him to confess to his complicity in the sacrilege episode. He was falsely implicated in a case of the theft of bir (copy) of Guru Granth Sahib as part of a deep-rooted conspiracy due to political pressure,” the plea had alleged further claiming that the role of 12 persons, including senior police officers, was to be probed, which was not done by the SIT constituted by the state. The SIT probing the murder was headed by Kesar Singh, PPS, SP (PBI), Patiala.
CBI in this case was inclined to take over the probe. However, court ordered SIT probe by Punjab police in view of sacrilege cases already being investigated by the state’s agency. While ordering reconstitution of SIT, the bench observed that apparently, present SIT has not investigated the allegations arising out of diary note so far. ENDS
