Kotkapura firing: SIT files supplementary challan against Badals, ex-DGP Sumedh Saini
Kotkapura: The Special investigation team (SIT) probing the Kotkapura firing case, led by ADGP L K Yadav, Tuesday filed a 2,400-page supplementary challan against former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, the then home minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini and five others.The challan was filed before the court of judicial magistrate first class Ajaypal Singh in Faridkot under section 173(8) of CrPC. The others against whom supplementary challan was produced were – then Faridkot SSP Sukhmandar Singh Mann, then DIG Amar Singh Chahal, then Ludhiana police commissioner Paramraj Umranangal, then Moga SSP Charanjit Sharma, and the then Kotkapura SHO Gurdev Singh.
The main challan, running into 7,000 pages, was submitted in the court on February 24 in 17 parts mentioning Sukhbir Singh Badal and Saini as masterminds of the conspiracy for illegal and excess use of force to conceal the inaction of the state on a series of three sacrilege incidents in the Burj Jawahar Singh Wala and Bargari villages (affixing of derogatory poster opposite the wall of Bargari gurdwara and scattering of pages from the Angs Shri Guru Granth Sahib near the gurdwara site).
The challan 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.
The Kotkapura firing happened on October 14, 2015 during the tenure of the SAD-BJP government. The series of incidents began with the theft of a ‘bir’ (copy) of the Guru Granth Sahib, putting up of handwritten sacrilegious posters, and torn pages of the holy book being found scattered at Bargari in Faridkot in 2015. The events triggered protests and two persons — Gurjeet Singh and Kishan Bhagwan Singh — were killed in Behbal Kalan and a few others injured at Kotkapura in Faridkot in police firing.