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Punjab police firing cases: Trial court seeks status reports within fortnight
A trial court in Faridkot on Tuesday directed the two Punjab Police special investigation teams probing the Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura firing incidents to submit their status reports within a fortnight
A trial court in Faridkot on Tuesday directed the two Punjab Police special investigation teams (SITs) probing the Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura firing incidents to submit their status reports within a fortnight.
The order was passed by the court of additional sessions judge Rajiv Kalra during a hearing in the Behbal Kalan firing case on the framing of charges against the accused. Two Sikh protesters — Gurjeet Singh of Sarawan village and Krishan Bhagwan Singh of Niamiwala village in Faridkot district — were killed on October 14, 2015, after police resorted to firing to disperse those protesting against a sacrilege incident.
Apart from former director general of police Sumedh Singh Saini, all the accused — including suspended inspector general of police (IGP) Paramraj Singh Umaranagal and former senior superintendent of police Charanjit Singh Sharma — appeared before the trial court on Tuesday. Saini had sought exemption from personal appearance on health grounds, which was allowed by the court. The matter was adjourned to August 20 to wait for the police report.
“The present case related to an incident of Behbal Kalan and the investigation with regard to another incident related to Kotkapura is still going on. The SIT of both incidents of Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan have been directed by the Punjab and Haryana high court to submit the final reports under Section 173 of CrPC before the court at the earliest. While observing so, Hon’ble High Court has directed this court to take all these cases simultaneously on the same day and decide the same in accordance with law,” the judge said.
Earlier this week, the HC had disposed of five pleas filed by Saini and others while asking the SITs to expedite the probe into the two police firing cases. An SIT led by additional director general of police LK Yadav is probing the Kotkapura firing incident while another SIT led by inspector general of police Naunihal Singh is probing the Behbal Kalan incident.
