Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president and former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday told the special investigation team (SIT), probing the alleged police firing on anti-sacrilege protesters at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura in October 2015, that he never met Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar outside Punjab.
Sukhbir, who appeared before the five-member SIT headed ADGP Prabodh Kumar, termed the probe politically motivated. He was quizzed at the police headquarters here for about an hour by all members of the SIT.
Akshay’s name was mentioned in the Justice Ranjit Singh (retd) Commission report on sacrilege incidents, which was tabled in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha in August this year. In its report, the commission gave reference of a letter addressed to it by former MLA Harbans Jalal dated October 9, 2017, saying that a meeting took place between the Dera Sacha Sauda chief and Sukhbir at the Mumbai residence of the actor for the release of dera head’s movie “MSG-2 The Messenger” in Punjab.
“I categorically told the SIT that I never met the actor outside Punjab. They even asked irrelevant questions based on hearsay,” said Sukhbir while addressing a press conference after being questioned by the SIT. “It appears that the SIT has not done groundwork in the case. I was questioned about what directions I gave on October 14, 2015. They were not even aware that I was not in the state at that time,” said the SAD chief.
Sukhbir, who was also holding the home portfolio then, said that during examination, he questioned SIT member Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh if he received any directions from me to clear people from the Beas Bridge in 2015 when he was IG (border range). “The IG had no answer to my query. The only motive of this SIT is to make us accused on the directions of the Congress high command. One of the SIT members and IG Arunpal Singh was the Faridkot SSP when I was booked at the behest of the previous Captain Amarinder government in a case of theft of a camera,” Sukhbir said.
{{/usCountry}}Sukhbir, who was also holding the home portfolio then, said that during examination, he questioned SIT member Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh if he received any directions from me to clear people from the Beas Bridge in 2015 when he was IG (border range). “The IG had no answer to my query. The only motive of this SIT is to make us accused on the directions of the Congress high command. One of the SIT members and IG Arunpal Singh was the Faridkot SSP when I was booked at the behest of the previous Captain Amarinder government in a case of theft of a camera,” Sukhbir said.
{{/usCountry}}SITs are constituted by the Congress governments either to implicate rivals or give clean chits their own men, he said, adding that the present SIT had withdrawn serious cases against radicals who targeted his vehicle in Sangrur recently. Sukhbir also raised a question over the FIR in connection with which he was summoned by the SIT and alleged it was registered three years after the incident.
The SAD chief was accompanied by senior party leaders and MLAs.
The SIT has already questioned SAD patriarch and former CM Parkash Singh Badal in the case on November 16 and Akshay has been summoned for November 21.
BLAMES CAPT FOR AMRITSAR ATTACK
Sukhbir squarely blamed chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh for Sunday’s grenade attack on Nirankari Bhawan at Rajasansi in Amritsar. “Amarinder’s hands are stained with the blood of innocent people. He is hobnobbing with radicals who are hell-bent on fomenting trouble in the state,” he said.
“The attack is direct fallout of the chief minister’s policy to support radicals and use them to marginalise the mainstream moderate Akalis. This was done in the 1980s and 1990s too,” Sukhbir said. “Now again, Punjab is being pushed into bloodshed,” he said, alleging that even the Ranjit panel on sacrilege cases was used to divert attention from the abject failures of the Congress government.