2015 sacrilege cases: Punjab Police SIT to take over investigation

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Police SIT investigating police firing cases of October 2015 at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan would soon take over three FIRs pertaining to sacrilege cases registered at Bajakhana police station in Faridkot district in 2015. The SIT is headed by special DGP Prabodh Kumar (director, bureau of investigation).
These FIRs include the one registered on June 2, 2015 for stealing of bir from Burj Jawahar Singh Wala, another dated September 25, 2015 for putting up hand-written posters amounting to sacrilege and the third FIR dated October 12, 2015 related to the finding of torn pages of the Guru Granth Sahib in Bargari village.
The three FIRs had initially been handed over to the CBI by the previous SAD-BJP government in November 2015, but the Supreme Court on February 20 while dismissing CBI’s petition had allowed the Punjab police SIT to carry out probe into sacrilege cases as well. The CBI moved an appeal before the Supreme Court against the Punjab and Haryana high court order of January 25, 2019, wherein the high court had not found anything wrong in the Punjab government’s decision to withdraw probe of 2015-sacrilege cases from the CBI.
Reacting to the Supreme Court judgment, one of the key members of the SIT — IG Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh — wrote on his Facebook page “Truth always triumphs” and termed the apex court verdict as a “moral victory”. He added, “We are ready, no matter how powerful guilty are. Every challenge will be fought strongly. There can be delay in legal process, but justice will surely be done.”
Interestingly, the CBI, considered as the premier investigating agency, had on July 4 last year submitted a closure report in the special Mohali CBI court in these three FIRs about sacrilege cases as the CBI did not find any evidence against three accused Dera followers — Mohinder Pal Bittu (murdered last year in Nabha jail), Sukhjinder Singh alias Sunny, and Shakti Singh — arrested by the SIT headed by DIG Ranbir Singh Khatra.
However, at the same time, the CBI could also not find as to who was behind these sacrilege cases. Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh as well as other political parties had raised various questions on the closure report.
After the Punjab bureau of investigation’s director pointed out some loopholes in the CBI probe, including some unanswered questions about role of foreign agencies, the CBI in September last year told the special Mohali CBI court that it had transferred the investigation to its special investigation team for further probe.