Shiromani Akali Dal chief and former Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal told members of the Special Investigating Team probing the 2015 police firing incidents at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura on Monday that he has never met Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar outside the State.
Mr. Badal appeared before the SIT at Punjab police headquarters here and was quizzed for about an hour even as he described its investigation as “politically motivated”.
The name of Mr. Kumar was mentioned in the Justice (Retd.) Ranjit Singh Commission report on sacrilege incidents which was tabled in Punjab Vidhan Sabha in August this year. The police firings followed in the wake of the sacrilege incidents.
“They (SIT) asked me whether I met Akshay in Mumbai. I told them, ‘You are asking me a question and not telling me who said this. They said they cannot share,’” Mr. Badal told reporters later. “I told them I never met Akshay Kumar outside Punjab in my life. I met him at a sports function (in Punjab).”
According to the report, a meeting between Mr. Badal and Dera Sacha Sauda sect head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in connection with the release of latter’s movie MSG was held at the actor’s flat in Mumbai in 2015. It said the meeting was held before the pardon given to the Dera head in a blasphemy case. MSG could not be released in Punjab in September 2015 because of an edict by Akal Takht.
Mr. Kumar had then denied having met the Dera head.