SIT summons former Punjab DGP Sumedh Saini again in Kotkapura police firing case

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 21

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the 2015 Kotkapura police firing incident has again summoned former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini for his alleged role in the incident.

The SIT led by ADGP LK Yadav has asked Saini to appear before the team on November 29. The SIT has quizzed Saini twice earlier.

The latest summon assumes significance as the SIT members had recently visited the firing site in Kotkapura. During the fresh round of questioning, the SIT is likely to focus of Saini’s previous responses about the ground situation in Kotkapura when the police resorted to lathicharge and firing. Officials may match his responses with the findings made by the SIT from their spot visit or questioning of other persons and officials involved in the incident.

The site visit was made to ascertain, among other things, if the persons injured in police firing were sitting on the road or charging at the police. The police have maintained that it opened fire in self-defence against a mob that had attacked them.

However, the injured and other eye witness insisted that they were peacefully sitting on a dharna when the police fired at them.

The SIT is also mandated to find out who had ordered the firing at the mob. It is still unclear if the decision to use firearms to control the protest was made at the ground-level or it came from the top, including then Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Saini or then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

Five persons were injured in the police firing in mid-October 2015 at the mob which was protesting against a series of sacrilege incidents.

To find who ordered use of arms

The SIT is also mandated to find out, who had ordered firing at the mob. It is still unclear if the decision to use firearms to control the protest was made at the ground-level or it came from the top, then DGP Saini or then CM Parkash Singh Badal.

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