Kotkapura firing: SIT files supplementary chargesheet against Badals, former DGP
The Special Investigation Team probing the Kotkapura firing has submitted a supplementary chargesheet running into 2,400 pages naming the Badals and a former DGP.
(News Agency)-A Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Additional Director General of Police L K Yadav submitted a 2,400 page supplementary chargesheet of the Kotkapura firing case to a court in Faridkot, naming former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Home Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and then DGP Sumedh Singh Saini.
The chargesheet was filed under Section 173(8) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.On the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Chandigarh, the state government formed an SIT comprising ADGP LK Yadav, Inspector General Rakesh Agarwal and senior superintendent of police, Moga, Gulneet Singh Khurana to probe the Kotkapura firing case.
The SIT filed the main chargesheet, running into 7,000 pages, to the court on February 24.The main chargesheet mentioned Sukhbir Singh Badal and Saini as masterminds of the conspiracy for illegal and excessive use of force to conceal the inaction of the state on a series of sacrilege incidents in the Burj Jawahar Singh Wala and Bargari villages. The chargesheet mentioned Parkash Singh Badal as a facilitator in the execution of the conspiracy. A few senior police officers were also named as executors of the conspiracy. Both Badals got anticipatory bail in the case. In the first incident reported on June 1, a copy of the Guru Granth Sahib was stolen from Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village in Faridkot district.The second incident took place on September 24-25 when some abusive posters were put up by a group of people in Burj Jawahar Singh Wala and Bargari, threatening that the Guru Granth Sahib would be thrown on to the streets.
On October 14, 2015, the Punjab Police opened fire at people protesting at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan against the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib in Faridkot’s Bargari village. While two people were killed in Behbal Kalan, a few others were injured in Faridkot's Kotkapura in police firing.