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Akshay Kumar leaves Chandigarh after deposing before SIT in 2015 police firing case
Though actor Akshay Kumar does not have any direct link with the 2015 police firing case, the SIT wants to examine him as his name was mentioned in a report on sacrilege incidents, which was tabled in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha in August this year.
Bollywood star Akshay Kumar on Wednesday appeared before the Punjab Police’s special investigation team (SIT) probing incidents of police firing on anti-sacrilege protesters in Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan in October 2015 after the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib at Bargari in Faridkot.
Akshay denied having ever met Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.
The actor arrived at the Punjab police headquarters in Chandigarh at 9:30am after the special team sent him a notice under Section 160 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) on November 11 to appear before it. He left for Mumbai later in the day.
The actor was questioned in the officer’s lounge by the five-member team, headed by ADGP Prabodh Kumar for about an hour. According to an SIT member, Akshay was asked five questions which pertained to his alleged relations with Ram Rahim and Sukhbir Badal.
“The entire story seems to be a script of a bollywood movie. I am surprised that I have been dragged in this case unnecessarily. I have never met Ram Rahim,” an SIT member quoted Akshay as having told the probe team.
The team is probing the firings in Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan after pages from the Guru Granth Sahib were found torn in Bargari in the state in 2015. Two people were killed in the firing in Behbal Kalan.
He was earlier asked to appear at the Amritsar Circuit House for his examination as a witness in a case registered at Kotkapura police station. The SIT later agreed to record his statement at the Punjab police headquarters, following a request by Kumar’s Mumbai-based counsel.
The SIT is questioning Kumar as his name was mentioned in the report by the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission, which was tabled in the Punjab assembly in August this year, on the incidents of sacrilege in the state.
The report referred to a letter it received from former MLA Harbans Jalal written on October 9, 2017, claiming that a meeting took place between Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and the then deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal at the actor’s flat in Mumbai in 2015 to facilitate the release of the Dera head’s movie “The Messenger of God-2 in Punjab.
The meeting was allegedly held before the Dera chief was pardoned in a blasphemy case. The movie “MSG” was not released in Punjab in September 2015 because of an edict by the Akal Takht, the supreme temporal seat of the Sikhs, against it.
Jalal also alleged that giving pardon to the dera head by the Akal Takht in a blasphemy case was also part of the plan discussed in the meeting. However, Jalal had stated that his allegation was based on “hearsay”.
Kumar, however, has denied meeting the Dera head, who is currently serving a 20-year jail term in a rape case. He also said he never arranged any meeting between Sukhbir Singh Badal and Singh. In a tweet, he even dared “anybody to prove his statement wrong”.
He had issued the denial on November 12 after the SIT summoned him along with former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal.
The SAD chief, who was questioned by the SIT on Monday, also denied meeting the Bollywood star outside Punjab.
The probe team had also questioned former chief minister Parkash Singh in the case on November 16.
The five-member team was set up by the Captain Amarinder Singh-led state government in September this year, soon after the notification to withdraw the investigation of sacrilege incidents from the Central Bureau of Investigation was issued.
