2015 Kotkapura police firing case: Akali Dal show of strength as Badals appear in court, furnish bail bonds

Their lawyer Shiv Kartar Singh Sekhon said, “While granting anticipatory bail to Parkash Singh Badal, the court of additional sessions judge had directed him to appear before the judicial magistrate within 15 days to furnish bail bonds. The high court, while granting anticipatory bail to Sukhbir Badal had given similar instruction. Both of them appeared before the court today and furnished the bail bonds”.

A Punjab Police Special Investigation Team, led by ADGP L K Yadav that investigated the police firing case, had filed a chargesheet in a Faridkot court on February 24 naming the Badals and six police officers, including former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini. The next date of hearing is on April 12 Sekhon said they have secured a copy of the chargesheet. “These are about 2,700 pages. We are reading the document,” he added.

“This is a false and fabricated case imposed on me and my father by (Chief Minister) Bhagwant Mann. In the previous Congress government, Capt Amarinder Singh had also imposed a fake case on us. If the Aam Aadmi Party government thinks that they can intimidate us by imposing false cases, they are mistaken. Shiromani Akali Dal is a party of martyrs and we are not scared of any cases. We have full faith in the judiciary,” Sukhbir said after coming out of the court.

A sea of Akali Dal workers and leaders had gathered outside the court complex. The occasion also turned into a first joint public appearance of the members of the extended Badal family after the 2022 Assembly poll rout. Sukhbir’s wife and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal, her brother and former minister Bikram Singh Majithia, apart from former ministers Sikander Singh Maluka, Balwinder Singh Bhunder, Janmeja Singh Sekhon, and Mahesh Inder Singh Grewal among others were present.

“We have full faith in judiciary and will fight this political vendetta with that faith. I am touched by and grateful for the spontaneous outpour of support and solidarity shown by Shiromani Akali Dal workers and sympathisers today,” Sukhbir later said in a tweet.

It was on March 6 that the court had issued notices to the Badals, Saini, former Faridkot SSP Sukhmander Singh Mann, former DIG Amar Singh Chahal, former IG Paramraj Umranangal, former Moga SSP Charanjeet Singh Sharma, and former SHO Kotkapura Gurdeep Singh Randhawa to be present before the court on March 23. On March 9, the Badals had filed anticipatory bail pleas. Apart from the Badals, former SSP Mann also appeared before the court on Thursday.

The 7,000-page chargesheet in the case names Sukhbir and Saini as “masterminds of conspiracy for illegal and excess use of force to conceal inaction of state” on three sacrilege incidents in Faridkot. It also blames Parkash Singh Badal for being “a facilitator” while Umranangal, Chahal, Mann, and Sharma have been accused of “executing the conspiracy”. It also indicted Randhawa for distortion and concealment of facts.

The Yadav-led SIT is probing two FIRs pertaining to the Kotkapura firing incident – dated October 14, 2015, and August 7, 2018. Two people were killed in Behbal Kalan and a few others were injured in Kotkapura on October 14, 2015, when the police opened fire on people protesting against the theft of a ‘bir’ of the Guru Granth Sahib, recovery of sacrilegious posters, and alleged tearing of pages of the holy book at Bargari in Faridkot. The incident took place when the SAD-BJP combine was in power in the state. While Mann, Saini and Umranangal have been mentioned in both FIRs, Randhawa has been named only in the 2015 FIR. The Badals and Sharma have been named only in the August 2018 FIR. Charges have been filed under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Arms Act.