Court for fresh SIT in Maur blast case

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 18

The Punjab and Haryana High Court today ordered the constitution of a new SIT for probing the Maur Mandi blast case after disbanding the existing one.

The Bench of Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Arun Palli directed the DGP (Law and Order) to constitute the new SIT. The Bench also made it clear that the officer would be personally responsible for ensuring proper investigation into the matter.

The SIT was also given three-month time to complete the probe.

Previous SIT head Ranbir Singh Khatra had, on a previous date of hearing, appeared before the Bench in pursuance to a court order. Taking up the matter, the Bench had earlier asserted: “We are not at all satisfied with the status report since there has been no tangible progress in the investigation for the last few months. Let chairman of the SIT constituted to carry out the investigation appear before us to assist the court in the matter,” the Bench had asserted.

The development took place after a petition was filed for handing over the investigation to the NIA or the CBI for a fair and speedy probe.

In his petition against Punjab, Bathinda SSP, Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim and other respondents, Gurjeet Singh Patran of Patiala district and two other petitioners claimed that the investigation in the case virtually came to a standstill after news surfaced that the vehicle used in the blast was prepared in VIP workshop of Dera Sacha Sauda at Sirsa and two close associates of DSS chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim were involved in the investigation.

Plea for fair probe 

The development took place after a petition was filed for handing over the investigation to the NIA or the CBI for a fair and speedy probe.