Sidhu Moosewala murder case: Setback to AAP govt as High Court turns down plea for probe by its judge

The Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party government had on Monday written to the high court urging it to assign a judge to monitor the probed into the high profile killing of Moosewala. In a letter to the HC, Anurag Verma, Principal Secretary, Home Affairs and Justice Department, wrote: “The government is very concerned about this serious incident and would like to get to the root of the issue to bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice. I have been directed to convey the request of the Hon’ble Chief Minister for the Hon’ble Chief Justice, Punjab and Haryana High Court to get conducted an enquiry headed by a sitting judge…in this regard”.

The turning down of the request has many political ramifications for the government, which had sought to soothe the frayed tempers after Moosewala’s killing by sending the letter to the HC. Moosewala’s father, Balkaur Singh had earlier written to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann demanding that his son’s murder should be probed by a sitting high court judge. He had also demanded that the probe be handed over to the NIA or CBI. The family had put Moosewala’s cremation on hold for a day awaiting government action. It was only after the home secretary’s communication to HC that the family and Congress leaders, who had been camping at the native village of the singer, agreed to send Moosewala’s body for postmortem.

Meanwhile, even before the HC officially informed the government, Congress leader Sukhpal Khaira put out a tweet saying that he has learnt “from reliable official sources” that the Chief Justice has rejected Mann’s proposal to appoint a sitting judge to inquire into the murder of Moosewala. “I had warned my party colleagues about this on May 30 at Moosa,” he added.