Parkash Singh Badal questioned third time in Kotkapura police firing incident

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 12

In the police firing incident of October 2015 at Kotkapura, the Special Investigation Team (SIT), on Wednesday, questioned former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at his residence here today.

It is the third time in the last seven years that the former Chief Minister was questioned by the SIT in this case. Earlier it was in November 2018 and June 2021 that the SIT had quizzed Badal.

He was the Chief Minister during October 2015 when incidents of desecration of ‘bir’ of Guru Granth Sahib and subsequent police firing on people protesting over the issue had occured in Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan village of Faridkot district.

Presently, a new SIT, led by an ADGP-rank police officer, LK Yadav, is probing the Kotkapura incident on October 14, 2015. This was constituted in May 2021 after the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed the report submitted by the first SIT, led by Inspector General Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, in April 2021.

A month after it was constituted, this new SIT had questioned the former Chief Minister at his residence on June 22, 2021. Earlier, on November 16, 2018, the SIT, led by the then IGP, Kunwar Vijay Pratap, a member of the SIT, had arrived at Badal’s residence in Chandigarh to question him in the Kotkapura police firing incident. While declining to answer the questions of Kunwar Vijay Pratap, that time Badal had called up then ADGP Prabodh Kumar, the head of the SIT, and reportedly asked the officer to come personally to question him. The officer went to his residence and then the SIT questioned him.

The new SIT has already quizzed Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president and former Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal two times. The SIT had earlier questioned the then state Director General of Police, Sumedh Saini, and asked him to explain what the trigger was for firing on protesters at Kotakpura on October 14, 2015. Several Sikh protesters were injured in the police firing at Kotkapura, while two people were killed in shooting at Behbal Kalan that took place the same day.

Ridiculing Badals’ questioning by the SIT, Sukhraj Singh, son of Bhagwan Krishan Singh, one of those killed in the police firing on October 14, 2015, alleged the questioning of Badals was just a drama being enacted on the completion of seven years of the firing incidents on October 14 as various Sikh organisations had given a call to intensify their protest to seek justice in sacrilege and police firing incidents.

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