Behbal kalan firing: Arrest of Sohail Brar exposes self-defence theory of cops

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, June 17

The arrest of Sohail Singh Brar, who is accused of fabricating bullet marks on a police escort vehicle in the Behbal Kalan police firing case, has exposed the police’s self-defence theory.

Sohail was produced before the Judicial Magistrate, First Class, (JMIC) Faridkot, on Wednesday. The court sent him to five-day police custody after the Special Investigation Team (SIT) averred that his questioning was necessary to dig out the names of all conspirators in the case.

Probe tardy: AAP

Chandigarh: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has questioned the “slow pace” of probe into the sacrilege cases and the Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura firing incidents. They alleged that the Congress had been influencing the investigating agencies to protect the high profile accused, including the Badals. TNS

Son of a late Akali leader, Sohail had allegedly helped the police in creating fake bullets marks on pilot Gypsy vehicle of former SSP Moga and prime accused Charanjit Singh Sharma, so that the police could create an alibi for self-defence.

In the firing incident, in which two persons were killed, the police are mainly relying on the plea that they had opened fire in their right to defence.

Using a private .12 bore gun, these bullets marks were made by an SP-rank officer at the house of Brar in Faridkot on October 14, 2015.

Even Sohail had given a statement to this effect before the judicial court in Faridkot on February 26, 2019. The SIT had not arrested Brar over the past year, as it was alleged that the SIT was under political pressure to give a clean chit to him for turning into a prosecution witness.

In Behbal Kalan firing case, two cross-FIRs were registered. While in the first FIR, registered on October 14, 2015, the day of incident, the police had claimed that they were attacked by some protesters with firearms and the police had acted in self-defence, which led to the death of two protesters.

In another FIR, registered on October 21, 2015, the police was accused of unprovoked firing on the protesters.

It is alleged that the accused cops had fabricated bullet marks on their vehicle to put forth the theory of self-defence.