Chandigarh, March 15: Sukhpal Singh Khaira President of Punjab Ekta Party(PEP) today said that Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to probe Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura police firing on Sikhs who were protesting against sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib ji at Bargari and other places was only a political gimmick.
In a statement, Khaira said the interest of Capt Amarinder Singh was limited to taking political advantage of these cases during Parliament elections and then allow the cases to fizzle out. There seems no seriousness to book the culprits of sacrilege and police firing, instead attempts are made to interrupt the legal course.
He said most of the police officers named in the FIRs managed to get blanket bail from the Punjab and Haryana High Court and Advocate General Atul Nanda was conspicuous by his absence during hearing of bail applications. He said that it couldn’t be without the consent of Chief Minister that AG continues to ignore such an important case.
Even in the case of former SSP Charanjit Singh Sharma, the court had granted him blanket bail when AG didn’t appear in High Court. It was at later stage, a Deputy Advocate General approached the court and order was recalled by the High Court. Earlier, three other officials superintendent of police (SP) Bikramjit Singh, inspector Pardeep Singh and sub-inspector Amarjit Singh were granted blanket bail by the High Court in similar manner. The AG office seemed working to the convenience of petitioners, he added.
Khaira asked Chief Minister what action his government had taken against the AG and his subordinates for “pre-empting” the legal recourse. He said that action of AG amounts to stonewalling the proceedings against accused police officials and betrayal of interest of state. Nanda, he added had also failed to appear to defend state in a case of Pol Khol rally of SAD at Faridkot in September last for which HC granted ex-party permission.
Khaira alleged that Capt Amarinder Singh was in collusion with Badal family to linger on the cases and let the impact of public anger against Badal family die down with time.
