No faith in CBI over Bargari: Capt

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 26

Raising the political pitch on the sacrilege issue ahead of the bypoll for the four Assembly segments, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh said today that the state had no faith in the CBI in the matter of the Bargari sacrilege case probe, and his government would not, at any cost, allow the Badals to prevent the investigations from going back to the Punjab Police.

Even as the state government formally contested in court the CBI’s decision to hand over the Bargari investigation to a Special Investigation Team (SIT), the Chief Minister said the CBI, clearly acting under pressure from the Central Government at the behest of the Badals, was quite obviously trying to stop the probe from going forward.

The Chief Minister also came down heavily on the Akali leadership, particularly Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, saying that she should either persuade the Centre to send the case back to the state or should resign.

Joining the issue, Punjab Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa reacted strongly to the decision of the CBI to constitute the SIT to further probe the cases of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib, asserting this was a clear case of contempt of the state VIdhan Sabha that had unanimously resolved to withdraw this sensitive probe from the Central agency.

“What about the seven-hour debate in the Vidhan Sabha on Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report that had recommended further probe? It was at the culmination of the debate that the resolution was adopted recommending to the state government to constitute another SIT for a thorough and unbiased investigation. Now the situation is back to square one,” he said.

It was on the basis of the Assembly resolution that the state government had written to the Centre on withdrawing investigation from the CBI that was entrusted with the probe by the Akali Dal-BJP government headed by Parkash Singh Badal.

He said the CBI had constituted the SIT citing a letter written by head of Punjab Bureau of Investigation Prabodh Kumar who also heads the five-member SIT constituted by the state government following recommendation made by the Vidhan Sabha.

The minister felt this had created confusion as the probe would be lost due to multiple agencies. He said larger issue was the contempt of the Assembly and the fate of the unanimous resolution recommending withdrawal of probe from the CBI.