Bargari: SIT arrests ex-SHO in Kotkapura firing case

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, June 25

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the state police on Thursday arrested Gurdeep Singh Pander, the then Kotkapura SHO, in the 2015 firing incident at Kotkapura.

The incident had taken place on October 14, 2015 in the aftermath of a sacrilege incident at a gurdwara at Bargari village. A criminal case under Sections 307 and 353 of the IPC and relevant Sections of the Arms Act was registered against unknown persons on the complaint of Pander. He had accused unknown persons of attacking the police and damaging public property.

Now, the SIT has nominated Pander as an accused in the case, charging him with breach of trust and forging official records. Sources said Pander, who had access to vital evidence relating to the firing incident, had allegedly tampered with the evidence in a bid to implicate some innocent persons.

Pander had claimed that the cops fired 10 bullets in self-defence after they were attacked by the protesters. He had made an entry in the malkhana record regarding the deposit of 10 empty cartridges, but these were never deposited, the SIT claimed.

Accusing him of forging the records and misappropriating cartridges, the SIT arrested Pander on Thursday and got his one-day police remand. Earlier in January this year, Pander along with former SAD MLA Mantar Singh Brar and then Kotkapura DSP Baljit Singh, had got bail in the firing case.

Since the bail was granted in a case registered at Kotkapura on August 7, 2018, the SIT has booked Pander in the old case of October 14, 2015, in which he himself was the complainant.

The state had witnessed a series of sacrilege incidents during 2015. It started from Bargari village from where a “bir” was stolen in June 2015. The incidents led to widespread protests across the state. During one such protest, two youths were killed in police firing at Behbal Kalan on October 14.