E-Paper
No need to be happy about clean chit, Kunwar Vijay on sacrilege SIT report
The Shiromani Akali Dal, which had been facing the backlash in sacrilege incidents that happened during its regime in 2015, had hailed the final SIT report
Days after the Punjab government released the final report of the special investigation team (SIT) into the 2015 Bargari sacrilege cases, which ruled out any political link, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh on Thursday said “no one needs to be happy” about the clean chit as the case of post-sacrilege police firing incidents is still pending in court.
The former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, who is now the MLA from Amritsar North, was speaking after being felicitated by Sikh activists at the Akal Takht for his role in the investigation into the alleged police firing on anti-sacrilege protesters at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan in Faridkot district in 2015.
Replying to a query on the SIT report, which was hailed by the Shiromani Akali Dal as it had been facing the backlash in sacrilege incidents that happened during its regime, Kunwar Vijay said: “I repeatedly ask which SIT this report belongs to? When was that SIT formed? Whom this report was given and where? Which case is this report about? It must be made clear. One can be happy only after these things are clarified. Till then no one needs to be happy.”
Chief minister Bhagwant Mann on July 2 had handed over the report, which probed three cases linked to the Bargari sacrilege incidents, to Sikh community leaders. The SIT, which was headed by an inspector general of police, had submitted the 467-page report to the director, Bureau of Investigation, late in April this year. The probe found that the sacrilege incidents were carried out by Dera Sacha Sauda followers on directions of the sect head.
Kunwar Vijay, a 1998-batch IPS officer, had opted for premature retirement from service, soon after the Punjab and Haryana high court, on April 9 last year, quashed the probe report filed by the SIT led by him into the Kotkapura firing case. Later, the Punjab government reconstituted the SIT to complete investigations into the Behbal Kalan case. Kunwar Vijay reiterated that the challan submitted by the SIT headed by him in the Faridkot sessions court still stands and he is hopeful that the court will deliver justice in this case.
“Kunwar Vijay did not only uncover the truth of the sacrilege and police firing incidents that happened at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan, but also did not take care of his job. He is the only ruling party MLA who is still raising the issue of sacrilege episode and pursuing the cases in this regard. His move of raising the issue in the recent assembly session is laudable,” said Harjinder Singh Majha and Harjit Singh Dhapali, Sikh preachers who led the Darbar-e-Khalsa activists who honoured the former cop with a siropa (robe of honour) and small gold kirpan.
