Faridkot, June 19
Three years after the court had accepted the request of the SIT to grant pardon to Pardeep Singh, a prime accused in the Behbal Kalan police firing incident and making him an approver, three family members of the deceased, Bhagwan Krishan Singh, and four other witnesses today approached the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Faridkot, to include their affidavits in the investigation being conducted by the new SIT.
The court has issued a notice to the SIT for July 3 in this regard. Pardeep was a reader of then Moga SSP Charanjit Sharma and both were named as key accused in the police firing incident in which two persons were killed in October 2015.
Sukhraj Singh Niamiwala, son of Bhagwan Krishan Singh, said Pardeep should also be prosecuted as he was the prime accused, which led to the killing of two protesters, thus there was no logic in granting pardon to him.
Pardeep had allegedly named a DGP-rank officer and a senior Akali leader as the accused who ‘played’ an instrumental role in the police firing at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan on October 14, 2015, in the aftermath of desecration of Guru Granth Sahib at Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala villages.
In its application before the court in September 2020, the SIT had claimed that Pardeep would be a key witness for the prosecution to unravel the sequence of events relating to the incidents and also unmask the perpetrators of Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura.
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