CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to hand over its case diaries and papers related to the cases related to the investigation into the 2015 sacrilege incidents to the Punjab Police within a month.
Justice Amol Rattan Singh passed the order while hearing a petition filed by a Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS) follower, Sukhjinder Singh, alias Sunny Kanda, who is an accused in the case. In his plea, Sukhjinder had argued that since the matter is probed by the CBI, the Punjab government’s SIT should not investigate the matter. He had also sought directions for quashing the challan submitted by Punjab police SIT in this case.
The copy of the high court order was not available till the filing of this report but the development was confirmed by the Punjab government on Monday. The Punjab government confirmed that the HC has rejected Sukhjinder’s plea and has asked the CBI to hand over all relevant documents and material in the sacrilege cases to the Punjab Police.
HC judgment vindication of Punjab’s stance: Capt
It also directed the Punjab Police to consider the material handed over by the CBI and file a supplementary challan in the case, for consideration by the trial court-.Sumeet Goel, the senior counsel for CBI, also confirmed that similar directions had been issued but said that he would not be able to elaborate till a copy of the judgment is not available to him.
Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh termed the HC judgment a vindication of his government’s stance. He said it was high time the CBI listened to the courts and handed the case files back to the state so that the perpetrators of the crimes could be brought to justice.
His government had been fighting the CBI high-handedness for over two years, but the agency had failed to heed the various directions and orders of the courts in this time, the CM pointed out. Asserting his commitment to bring the sacrilege cases to their logical conclusion, Amarinder said the central agency should respect the verdict of the judiciary and stop overreaching the courts at the behest of its political masters.
A Punjab government spokesperson said the CBI has been scuttling the SIT probe since the state government withdrew its consent for the probe by the central agency in 2018. The CBI has been persistently refusing to hand the case files back to state, and in September 2019, went so far as to constitute a new investigative team in a clear bid to obstruct the SIT investigation, after having earlier filed a closure report.
The SIT had been constituted by the Amarinder government in September 2018, after the Vidhan Sabha passed a resolution withdrawing consent to CBI to investigate the cases, noting lack of progress in the investigation. This decision was challenged before the Punjab and Haryana high court by the CBI and was upheld by a judgment passed on January 25, 2019. Despite this, the CBI did not hand over the case diaries and papers relating to the sacrilege cases to the Punjab Police. Instead, the CBI proceeded to file a closure report before the CBI court in Mohali in July 2019. Thereafter, the CBI requested the CBI court to keep the closure report in abeyance and sought permission to investigate the case further, said the spokesperson.
The CBI appeal challenging the 2019 judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court was dismissed by the Supreme Court in February 2020. Even after dismissal of the appeal, the CBI did not hand over the case papers to the Punjab Police. A special investigation team was constituted by the Punjab Police to independently investigate into the sacrilege matters. The SIT filed a chargesheet before the trial court in Faridkot in July 2020, which was challenged by Sukhjinder Singh, the spokesperson added.