Navjot Sidhu targets Capt govt over 'weak' probe in Bargari sacrilege cases, wants SIT findings made public

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 13

Upping the ante against the delay in bringing to book the accused in the sacrilege incidents and subsequent police firing, former Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Tuesday landed at gurdwara Burj Jawahar Singh in Bargari, the epicentre of sacrilege incidents.

Demanding to make public findings of the SIT investigation, Sidhu targeted his own party’s ruling dispensation for allegedly being weak on presentation of facts in the cases. 

Punjab and Haryana HC quashes investigation in Kotkapura firing case

He said on the pattern of tabling Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report in the Vidhan Sabha, the report of IG Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh should also be made public.

After paying obeisance at gurdwara Burj Jawahar Singh on the occasion of Baisakhi, Sidhu said people had high hopes that the guilty would be brought to book, adding that “justice delayed is justice denied”.

Kotkapura Verdict: Probe fair, will challenge High Court decision in apex court: Capt Amarinder Singh

The Chief Minister has termed the probe into the Kotkapura firing case as "fair, impartial and unbiased", and announced that his government would challenge in the Supreme Court the orders of the High Court for quashing the investigation of the Punjab Police SIT or removing its chief.

Sidhu stayed at the gurdwara for 15 minutes and left after paying obeisance and reciting holy ‘ardas’.

The special investigation team (SIT) of Punjab Police, probing over five-year-old sacrilege incidents at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala and Bargari villages of Faridkot, has nominated some Dera Sacha Sauda followers, suspecting them to be the prime accused in the sacrilege and theft incidents.

In June 2016, after an unidentified man had opened fire at Gurdev Singh, a Dera follower, at his grocery shop at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village of Faridkot there was a massive protest by the Dera followers. Kotkapura and its two nearby villages, Burj Jawahar Singh Wala and Bargari, have been the epicentre of controversy for the past over five years. 

On June 1, 2015, a ‘bir’ of Guru Granth Sahib was stolen from the gurdwara at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala. On October 12, 2015, torn pages of this ‘bir’ were found scattered in front of the gurdwara in adjoining Bargari village. There were massive protests in which two Sikh protesters were killed at Behbal Kalan, followed by the killing of a Dera follower at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala on June 16, 2016.

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