Behbal Kalan Insaf Morcha tells govt can’t give 6 months for probe

Bathinda: The Behbal Kalan Insaf Morcha on Sunday refused to give more time to the Punjab government to complete the ongoing probe into Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura police firing incidents.
The morcha decided to convene a congregation on July 31, where a decision will be taken on intensifying the ongoing struggle to seek justice in the twin police firing incidents of October 2015.
The morcha had given the serving government three months at first and then 15 days to complete the investigation. The last deadline expired on Sunday.
On Sunday afternoon, Punjab assembly speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan, cabinet minister Harjot Singh Bains, Faridkot and Jaito MLAs, and a team of advocates met the morcha at Behbal Kalan. The team sought six months to complete the investigation.
The protest at Behbal Kalan bus stand, where police had fired at protesters on October 14, 2015, is being staged since December 16, 2021. Two protesters, Krishan Bhagwan Singh and Gurjit Singh, were killed in police firing at Behbal Kalan on October 14, 2015. At the time, people had assembled to protest against the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib at nearby Bargari village.
Krishan Bhagwan’s son Sukhraj Singh is the one who started the latest round of protest in December 2021, at the spot of the tragedy. Gurjit’s father, Sadhu Singh, is also part of the ongoing protest.
Sandhwan and Bains told the protesters that the government wanted to complete the probe in a professional manner and prepare a foolproof case, but it could be done in six months. Sukhraj said time had already been given to the government without any fruitful results. “The sangat is in no mood to give any time and will assemble at the spot on July 31 when a decision is expected,” he said.
The Punjab and Haryana high court on July 4 had disposed of a bunch of petitions regarding Behbal Kalan investigations and had directed the SIT to provide relevant record of Kotkapura case in Behbal Kalan case FIR as both the cases are inter-related and Behbal Kalan case SIT could not proceed further for want of relevant record being investigated by Kotkapura case SIT. The high court earlier had quashed investigations into Kotkapura case and directed the state government to form a new SIT for the probe.