E-Paper
Sacrilege cases in Punjab: SC seeks response on state’s plea in 4 weeks
Though the state constituted the SIT, afresh in May 2021, it through the Special Leave Petition (SLP) had challenged certain observations of the high court.
Chandigarh The Supreme Court has issued a notice on a plea from the Punjab government, seeking a reply in four weeks. The plea has been filed challenging the April 9 order of the Punjab and Haryana high court directing the reconstitution of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing sacrilege cases.
On April 9, the high court had set aside the challans presented by special Investigative team (SIT) in the Kotkapura firing case of 2015, that the Punjab Police had submitted in two FIRs registered in connection with the 2015 Kotkapura violence.
The high court bench of justice Rajbir Sehrawat had also asked the Punjab government to constitute a fresh special investigation team (SIT), excluding former IPS officer of the rank of IGP, Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh. Though the state constituted the SIT, afresh in May 2021, it through the SLP had challenged certain observations of the high court.
“The high court has erred in making several observations on the findings of the SIT about role of the persons mentioned in the charge-sheet, who were not parties before the high court. In doing so, the high court has virtually given a clean chit to such persons,” reads the SLP filed before the apex court. The SLP adds, “The HC made sweeping observations, attributing bias, to the state government purely on the basis of conjecture and surmise.”
Former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini, former IGP PS Umranangal and former SSP Charanjit Sharma were among the seven accused against whom challan was filed by the SIT.
Two people had lost their lives in the violence reported after incidents of sacrilege in 2015. Three FIRs on incidents of sacrilege were recommended for CBI probe in 2015 by the then SAD government, of which, the state passed a resolution to withdraw two FIRs in August 2018 under the Congress. In the same resolution, it also withdrew two more FIRs related to violence, entrusted to CBI barely four days before the move. There are a total of four FIRs registered to probe the incidents of violence.
The high court order had come on the 2019 plea of Gurdeep Singh Pandher, a former sub-inspector with Punjab Police and then Kotkapura SHO, being probed in these FIRs, who had approached the high court levelling allegations against then IGP Singh and sought his ouster from the SIT.
