Former SSP arrested in killing of two protesters in sacrilege case

BATHINDA: Former senior superintendent of police, Charanjit Sharma has been arrested by the special investigation team(SIT) probing the cases of sacrilege and killing of two protesters at village Behbal Kalan in district Faridkot on October 14, 2015. Sharma was arrested early Sunday morning from his residence at Hoshiarpur. He was posted as SSP at Moga and on that fateful day was deputed at Behbal Kalan village where people had assembled to protest against the case of sacrilege. The police allegedly had indulged into firing at the protesters and Krishan Bhagwan Singh of village Niamia and Gurjit Singh of village Sarawan were killed in the firing. Some others were also injured.

Nearly two hundred people were holding protests at Behbal Kalan village against the scattering of pages of Bir of Guru Granth Sahib at village Bargari on October 12, 2015.

Last week, after Punjab and Haryana high court had rejected the plea of some police officers of handing over the probe into sacrilege and killings to Central Bureau of Investigations instead of SIT, the SIT had issued summons to Sharma and others to appear before it on January 29 but the police arrested them before he could appear.

“Charanjit Sharma has been arrested and SIT will make investigations”, SIT member and IG Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh confirmed the arrest.