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Kotkapura firing: SIT summons Sukhbir for questioning on June 26
SIT has asked the then home minister to appear before it at Punjab Police Officers’ Institute in Chandigarh
A day after questioning Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patriarch and former chief minister (CM) Parkash Singh Badal, the Punjab Police newly formed special investigation team (SIT) has summoned former deputy CM and party president Sukhbir Singh Badal on June 26 in connection with the 2015 Kotkapura firing case.
Sukhbir, who was the home minister when the Kotkapura firing took place, has been asked to appear with record, if any, before the SIT on June 26 at 11am at Punjab Police Officers’ Institute, Sector 32, Chandigarh, in connection with two first information reports (FIRs) registered at the Kotkapura city police station on October 14, 2015, and August 7, 2018. Summon was issued under Section 160 (police officer’s power to require attendance of witnesses) of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
Apart from Badal Senior, the SIT led by additional director general of police (ADGP) LK Yadav has recently questioned a number of senior police officials, including former director general of police (DGP) Sumedh Singh Saini and suspended inspector general of police (IGP) Paramraj Singh Umranangal.
This is the second time during the Congress regime that Sukhbir will be quizzed in connection with Kotkapura firing incident. Earlier, the SIT led by former IG Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh had questioned the SAD chief in November 2018.
A chargesheet filed in the court by Kunwar in May 2019 has said that incidents of desecration of Guru Granth Sahib were “a pre-planned handiwork of then deputy CM Sukhbir Badal, then DGP Saini and Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda”. The Kunwar-led SIT had claimed that the post-sacrilege firing incidents at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan were part of a conspiracy and directions came from the top.
On April 9, questioning the impartiality of Kunwar Vijay, the Punjab and Haryana high court had quashed all the chargesheets filed by the SIT in Kotkapura firing case. The court also directed the state government to reconstitute a new SIT without him. Upset over the HC verdict, Kunwar took voluntary retirement in April.
“Surprising thing is that even after making effort to find out and establish the allegation of conspiracy against Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir and despite mentioning their names in the chargesheet and recording therein that their conspiracy is established, Kunwar Vijay did not array them as accused by filing any chargesheet against them in these two FIRs so far. This is despite the fact that the chargesheet in which the alleged role of Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir has been mentioned by Kunwar Vijay, was prepared way back on May 23, 2019,” the HC stated in the quashing order.
