SIT challan names Parkash Singh Badal, Sukhbir Singh Badal, Sumedh Singh Saini as accused

BATHINDA: The special investigation team (SIT) probing cases of sacrilege and police firing at Kotkapura in 2015, on Friday, named former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, the then home minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini as accused in the challan presented in a Faridkot court.
The 7,000-page challan, presented by SIT head ADGP LK Yadav accompanied by SIT member and Bathinda senior superintendent of police (SSP) Gulneet Singh Khurana, gave details of what happened at Kotkapura on the morning of October 14, 2015.
Senior Badal has been named as an accused for facilitating execution of the conspiracy, while Sukhbir and Saini have been named as masterminds of the conspiracy for illegal and excessive use of force on protesters at Kotkapura to conceal inaction of the state when the protesters assembled to raise their voice against three sacrilege incidents .
Punjab saw a series of sacrilege incidents -- theft of the Bir of Guru Granth Sahib from Gurdwara of Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village on June 1, 2015, putting up derogatory posters at Bargari on September 25, 2015, and strewing of torn pages of Guru Granth Sahib at Bargari on October 12, 2015.
Suspended inspectorgeneral of police Param Raj Umranangal and then DIG Amar Singh Chahal have been named as accused in execution of conspiracy, then Faridkot SSP Sukhmander Singh Mann for execution of conspiracy/ distortion and concealment of facts and then Moga SSP Charanjit Singh Sharma for execution of conspiracy.
Then Kotkapura police station SHO Gurdeep Singh has been named as accused for distortion and concealment of facts. A challan was presented in the case earlier too by the previous SIT headed by ADGP Parbodh Kumar and then IG (now AAP MLA) Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh.
The investigation was challenged in Punjab and Haryana high court, which quashed it on April 9, 2021, and directed the Punjab government to set up another SIT headed by an ADGP-level officer and to complete the investigations in six months. Following this, a new SIT headed by ADGP LK Yadav was set up on May 7, 2021, to investigate the case.
Angry over the quashing of the investigation report, Kunwar Vijay Pratap resigned from IPS and later joined AAP. A score of protesters, including Sikh preachers Ranjit Singh Dhadrianwale, Panthpreet Singh and others had assembled at the light point intersection of Kotkapura on October 13, 2015.
The police continued holding talks with the protesters sitting on the road the entire night. Early on October 14, the police swung into action and used batons, water cannons and tear gas shells to disperse the protesters and even fired gunshots.
The police also registered a case against the protesters under attempt to murder charges stating that the protesters had attacked the police.
Later, one Ajit Singh of Chhana Gulab Singh village in Barnala district, came up, claiming a bullet injury to his thigh. Acting on his statement, a case under various charges, including attempt to murder, was registered against unidentified police men on August 7, 2018. Later, former DGP Saini, IG Umranangal and others were nominated in the case.