Kotakpura police firing: SIT summons Sukhbir Singh Badal on August 30

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating the 2015 Kotakpura police firing incident has summoned Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president and former Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal to appear before it on August 30. Badal was the home minister of Punjab in 2015.

Mentioning that the Punjab and Haryana High Court had on April 9, 2021 directed the state government to constitute an SIT to conduct an investigation into two cases registered at Kotakpura police station related to the police firing on a crowd protesting the alleged desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib, the summons order issued on August 18, 2022 called upon Badal to appear in person at 10.30 am on August 30 at the Punjab Police Officers Institute in Chandigarh.

The SIT had earlier questioned then Punjab Director General of Police Sumedh Saini and asked him to explain what was the trigger for the firing on protesters at Kotakpura on October 14, 2015. Saini was also asked who gave him the order to open fire at the crowd protesting against the sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib in Faridkot’s Bargari village. Saini was also questioned on why suspended IG Paramjit Singh Umranangal was deployed at Kotakpura, though his posting was in Ludhiana. Saini was considered close to then home minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.

Several Sikh protesters were injured in the police firing, while two people were killed in the shooting at Behbal Kalan that took place the same day.