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Kotkapura police firing: Sukhbir Badal granted pre-arrest bail, no relief for Sukhbir
A Faridkot district court on Thursday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president and Punjab’s former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal but granted relief to his father and former CM Parkash Singh Badal in connection with the 2015 Kotkapura police firing case.
BATHINDA
A Faridkot district court on Thursday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president and Punjab’s former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal but granted relief to his father and former CM Parkash Singh Badal in connection with the 2015 Kotkapura police firing case.
In his 28-page judgment, additional sessions judge Rajiv Kalra relied upon the chargesheet filed by the Punjab Police’s special investigation team (SIT) in the case before the same court on February 24.
The court said the SIT has enough material evidence against the former CM and his son Sukhbir, who was holding the home affairs portfolio in 2015, when the incident took place.
Considering the “gravity of the offence which had the potential to put the state in the turmoil of sectarian clash”, the judge said, “this court does not deem it fit case to extend the benefit of anticipatory bail.”
However, the court granted bail to Parkash Singh Badal (95) considering his age and health issues. Both SAD leaders had filed anticipatory bail applications on March 9 before the Faridkot court, which had reserved its order after hearing arguments on March 14 and 15.
Last month, the additional director general of police (ADGP) LK Yadav-led SIT filed the chargesheet in the police firing case, naming then CM Parkash Singh Badal and then deputy CM Sukhbir and former DGP Sumedh Saini among others.
The 7,000-page chargesheet, which is still not in public domain, named Sukhbir and Saini as “masterminds of conspiracy for use of illegal excessive force to hide the inaction” of the state on three sacrilege incidents in Faridkot. It also blamed Parkash Singh Badal for “facilitating the execution of the conspiracy”.
In 2015, police fired on protesters, who were demonstrating against the theft of a “bir” (copy) of the Guru Granth Sahib, recovery of sacrilegious posters, and alleged tearing of pages of the holy book at Bargari in Faridkot. While two people — Gurjeet Singh and Kishan Bhagwan Singh — were killed in Behbal Kalan, few others were injured at Kotkapura in Faridkot in police firing.
Quoting parts of the SIT chargesheet, the court said, “…a situation pertaining to religiously motivated protest (at Kotkapura) rooted in the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib was trivialised by the then CM (Parkash Singh Badal) and home minister (Sukhbir Badal) that one took only 9 minutes to be convinced by DGP (Saini) to use force against the protesters.”
The court order further cited SIT findings that the “then home minister (Sukhbir) abandoned law and order to confine himself in a hotel in Gurugram with no public duty to perform.”
The order added: “SIT has also found that the culpable silence of Parkash Singh Badal continued after acquiring information of indiscriminate police firing at Kotkapura chowk from three different sources… thus enabling, facilitating and aiding Saini to go ahead with carrying out similar (police) action at Behbal Kalan in furtherance of conspiracy with Sukhbir, Parkash and (former IG Paramraj) Umranangal.”
SAD spokesperson Arshdeep Kler said the party has full faith in the judiciary, and added that Sukhbir “will soon approach the Punjab and Haryana high court” as the police investigation “was biased”. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) spokesperson Neel Garg said the development has brought hope of justice for the people of Punjab and added “the Bhagwant Mann government has ensured that the SIT completes probe with all objectivity.”
