CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh is "shielding" those responsible for the 2015 sacrilege and subsequent police firing incidents the way Congress "protected" its party leaders involved in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, BJP leader Tarun Chugh alleged on Sunday.
The BJP national general secretary slammed the Congress-led government in the state for "failing" to act against the accused.
Chugh, in a statement, alleged that the newly constituted Special Investigation Team of the Punjab Police in the 2015 police firing incident has been giving all indications that the Amarinder Singh government is just buying time and is evading to punish the guilty.
"The chief minister is shielding the sacrilege accused the way Congress protected party leaders involved in 1984 anti-Sikh riots," he claimed.
"The present SIT is repeating all that had been done by the previous SIT. It is a shame for the Amarinder Singh-led government for failing to take action against the culprits even after four-and-a-half years," the BJP leader said.
The Punjab government had formed a new SIT, led by Additional Director General of Police L K Yadav, to probe the Kotkapura police firing incident following the directives of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The high court on April 9, 2021 had quashed a report by an earlier Punjab Police SIT into the 2015 firing incident in Kotkapura.
The BJP leader accused Amarinder Singh of trying to play with the "religious sentiments" of the people for "political reasons".
The incidents related to desecration of a religious text and subsequent police firing took place at Faridkot in 2015.