Sacrilege: Punjab ministers and MLAs want answers on SIT fiasco

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 24

Joining Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu, Punjab ministers and MLAs are now building up pressure on the state party leadership to know who in the government prevented former IG Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh-led SIT from adding the names of former CM Parkash Singh Badal and his deputy Sukhbir Badal to the FIRs related to police firing in sacrilege cases, two years after being named in a chargesheet.

Answers are being sought as to how technical flaws like registering second FIR, non-issuing of challans against Badals and other issued pointed out by the court were not checked by the Legal Remembrancer Office or the technical team contesting the case in the court.

Sidhu’s posers

Why evidence against Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir was not examined or brought before the court? Who is responsible for delaying and weakening the case?  — Navjot Singh Sidhu, Congress leader

A day after the HC gave a detailed judgment after quashing the SIT probe into the Kotkapura police firing case, Sidhu tweeted, “How will we get justice? If two years after naming Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Singh Badal in the chargesheet, no challan was filed against them nor their names were added to the FIR. Why evidence against the two was not examined or brought before the court? Who is responsible for delaying and weakening the case?”

Sidhu has been consistently taking on CM Capt Amarinder Singh, who also holds the Home Minister portfolio. While hitting out at Sidhu for not raising the issue on party platform, Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Randhawa also sought investigation and action against the police officers or senior government functionaries of the Chief Minister’s Office who created obstruction in the probe. Randhawa along with Amritsar MLA Raj Kumar Verka and MP Ravneet Bittu have urged the party high command to prevail upon Sidhu to raise issues within the party.

Taking aim at the ex-IG, Randhawa, who was instrumental in Kunwar’s appointment in the SIT, sought to know as to how technical flaws of not naming the Badals in the challan and FIRs were allowed to creep in and no one in the government was vigilant enough to check these.