Punjab Police Special Investigation Team summoned Sukhbir Singh Badal In 2015 Firing Incident

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president and former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal have been called to appear before a Punjab Police Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating the 2015 Kotkapura police fire incident on August 30 for interrogation in the matter.

At the time of the occurrence, Sukhbir was also in charge of the Home portfolio.

The summons was just recently issued.

However, Mr. Badal said on Thursday that he had not yet received any summonses.

The SAD leader told reporters that he would appear before the SIT as soon as he got the summons.

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In response to a query, Mr. Badal said that Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) pressured all the inquiry teams and made false accusations against the previous Akali administration about the sacrilege problem. However, none of their claims were proven to be accurate.

He said, “The Congress and the AAP should apologise in front of the voters they deceived in order to win elections.”

Sumedh Saini, a former director general of police, was recently questioned by the SIT in Chandigarh.

The former state police chief had been called in to testify by Additional Director General of Police and SIT chairman L K Yadav.

In the 2015 police shooting events in Faridkot in Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan, Mr. Saini was listed as a suspect.

Sumedh Saini and other alleged police personnel filed several applications last month challenging the Punjab Police’s investigation into the 2015 Behbal Kalan shooting. Still, the Punjab and Haryana High Court denied the petitions.

Mr. Saini and others had sought that the matter is moved to the Central Bureau of Investigation and that the SIT’s FIR and charge sheet be quashed (CBI).

Notable occurrences in Faridkot in 2015 include:

  • The theft of a Guru Granth Sahib “bir” (copy).
  • The posting of handwritten sacrilegious signs.
  • The discovery of shredded pages of the holy book.

In Faridkot, these occurrences sparked anti-sacrilege demonstrations.

In October 2015, two individuals were murdered in Behbal Kalan, and a few more were injured after police opened fire on anti-sacrilege demonstrators.