CBI seeks nod to resume Bargari probe, CM fumes

Tribune News Service

Mohali, August 26

In a major turn of events in the Bargari sacrilege cases, the CBI today sought permission from a special CBI court to reopen probe into certain issues raised by the state government recently.

Opposing the CBI application, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh called the CBI move as politically motivated and an attempt to scuttle the state government’s efforts to take the sacrilege cases to their logical conclusion. The court should not allow the CBI plea and should uphold the unanimous decision of the Vidhan Sabha to withdraw cases from the national agency, the CM said.

The CM asked the Advocate General to legally oppose the CBI plea for keeping its Bargari closure report in abeyance.

According to sources, the CBI, which submitted its closure report on July 4, has moved an application in the court, seeking permission to conduct further probe into certain aspects. The agency has reportedly also requested the court to keep its closure report in abeyance.

The investigation into three sacrilege cases was handed over to the CBI by the previous SAD-BJP government. The cases related to the theft of a “Bir” of Guru Granth Sahib from Burj Jawahar Singh Wala; putting up of hand-written sacrilegious posters in Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala; and torn pages of the holy book being found at Bargari on October 12, 2015.

Rejecting finding of an SIT, the CBI filed its closure report on July 4, giving a clean chit to the accused in the 2015 Bargari sacrilege case.

The Special Director of Bureau of Investigation, Punjab, had recently shot a communiqué to the CBI in which certain issues, which need to be probed properly, were raised. The CBI plea has come less than a week after the state government filed a revision petition in the CBI special court at Mohali, challenging its July 23 order dismissing the state’s request for a copy of the closure report filed by the agency.

Lashing out at the CBI for allegedly acting on the diktats of its political masters in Delhi, the CM questioned the sudden need on part of the agency for further probe.