2015 sacrilege incident: Capt says CBI trying to ‘subvert’ course of justice at SAD behest

Following the order, Amarinder had announced in the Vidhan Sabha that a special investigation team (SIT) of the Punjab Police would take over the probe into the incidents of desecration of religious texts and police firing.

The CBI, however, Friday informed a special court in Mohali that it has filed a review plea in the apex court against its February 20 order.

Taking strong exception to this, the CM said, “Not only is the CBI’s decision to move a review petition a blatant attempt to delay the investigation further, it is a clear endorsement of the Akali involvement in the incident, which had shaken Punjab in 2015. With this action, the Akalis have clearly proven their involvement in the entire ugly affair”.

Expressing his faith in the judiciary, the CM, however, said he is confident the courts will give the much-needed closure and justice to the victims in the case.

He said the previous SAD-BJP government had entrusted the probe into three cases filed in the matter to the CBI in November 2015, and the agency had failed to make any headway in its investigation all these years – a fact duly noted and recorded by the court during hearings in the matter.

“The entire drama of filing closure report, refusing to give copy of the same to the state government, then taking a U-turn on it after nearly two months, was enacted by the CBI on the directions of the Akalis, who did not want the truth in the matter to come out,” said Amarinder.

“But the people of Punjab want to know the truth, and want justice, and would not rest till they get the same,” he said while vowing to fight the central agency tooth and nail in the courts to ensure that the investigation in the case is taken to its logical conclusion.

Bundle of lies: SAD

The SAD, however, dubbed the CM’s accusations as “bundle of lies” and asked him to request the chief justice of India to depute a sitting judge to probe the sacrilege incidents, if he was really serious about delivering justice.

Stating that “the chief minister could not cover his own government’s failure to give justice in the Bargari sacrilege case with mischievous statements which did not have any basis”, SAD spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema said “Capt Amarinder did not find it fit to call on the Prime Minister or Home Minister on this issue for the last three years.”

“Even now the CM is playing a desperate gambit to divert attention from his failures after Congress ministers have been accused of saving policemen in the related Behbal Kalan police firing case. The family of a prime witness has detailed, even in the Vidhan Sabha, how Minister Gurpreet Singh Kangar and Faridkot legislator Kushaldeep Singh Dhillon intimidated and harassed the witness to shield the guilty police officers. The family of another witness has also detailed to the Punjab and Haryana High Court how names of seven out of eleven police officers accused of firing at innocent Sikhs have been dropped from an FIR at the instance of Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa,” Cheema said.

The Akali leader said it was “justifiable that the CM did not want the CBI to probe the matter as his own party leaders and ministers would be placed in the dock for pressuring witnesses to withdraw their statements. That is why the CM is getting panicky and issuing completely false and baseless statements.”

The previous SAD-BJP government had handed over three sacrilege cases — theft of a ‘bir’ (copy) of Guru Granth Sahib from a Burj Jawahar Singh Wala gurdwara on June 1, 2015; putting up of hand-written sacrilegious posters in Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala on September 25, 2015; and torn pages of the holy book being found at Bargari on October 12, 2015 in Faridkot — to the CBI.

The Punjab Assembly, however, had passed a resolution in 2018, handing over the probe to the Punjab Police SIT in sacrilege incidents at Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala villages and police firing incidents at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura in Faridkot.

Two persons, who were part of the anti-sacrilege protests, were killed in the police firing at Behbal Kalan in 2015.

Bargari Sacrilege Case Probe: CBI files review plea in SC

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Friday informed a special court here that it has moved Supreme Court seeking a review of the February 20 order by which the apex court had dismissed the agency’s plea to continue with its probe in the Bargari sacrilege cases.

The Supreme Court had dismissed a CBI plea challenging a 2019 Punjab and Haryana High Court order in which it had refused to interfere with the Punjab government’s decision to take back all sacrilege cases from the central probe agency.

During the resumed hearing before the CBI special magistrate GS Sekhon Friday, the CBI informed the special court that it had filed the review petition in the apex court on March 5. “In view of the review petition, the further proceedings pending before the CBI court are required to be kept in abeyance till the disposal of review petition,” the agency said in its application.

While asking other stakeholders, including Punjab and the complainants, to file their replies, the court deferred the hearing till April 1.

After the apex court dismissed its Special Leave Petition (SLP), the CBI on February 26 had sought 15 days time for the next course of action. However, Mohali court had granted the time till March 6.

Earlier, an apex court Bench of Justices RF Nariman and S Ravindra Bhat had dismissed the CBI’s plea on the ground of delay but left the question of law open.

The cases pertain to the 2015 sacrilege incidents at Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala villages and police firing incidents at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura in Faridkot. The previous SAD-BJP government in Punjab had in October 2015 handed over the probe to the CBI.

After, the Amarinder Singh-led Congress government assumed office in 2017, the state government had on September 6, 2018, issued a notification, withdrawing the consent given to the CBI to investigate the cases.