CHANDIGARH: Shiromani Akali Dal president (SAD) Sukhbir Singh Badal was on Saturday questioned for four hours by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the 2015 Kotkapura police firing case. Badal was Punjab’s deputy CM and home minister when incidents of desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib and subsequent police firing at people protesting against it took place in Faridkot in 2015.
Terming the SIT investigation as malicious, the SAD on Saturday accused Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, state unit chief Sunil Jakhar and Navjot Singh Sidhu of hatching a conspiracy to frame the party’s leadership. It alleged that the trio had replaced the three-member SIT team and had already indicted former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir in the Kotkapura incident.
Senior SAD leaders Bikram Singh Majithia, Balwinder Singh Bhundar, N K Sharma, Daljit Singh Cheema and others gathered at the Punjab Police Officers Institute, where Badal was being questioned, in a show of support.
Hinting at a witch-hunt against the Badals, Bhundur, Cheema and other leaders, including Prem Singh Chandumajra and Maheshinder Singh Grewal, said the SIT wanted to know who ordered the firing after the SDM concerned had already admitted that he had ordered it. “It’s like the SIT asking the SDM not to disclose that he had ordered the firing because it wanted to blame the Badal family for the same. It is clear that the SIT has become a puppet in the hands of the Gandhi family,” they said.
The leaders said it was shocking that the PCC chief had recently stated that he had explained the entire issue to Rahul Gandhi and that the latter had told CM Amarinder Singh to frame the Badals. The leaders said while Jakhar and Sidhu had committed contempt of court, charges should be pressed against Gandhi for becoming an abettor to an illegal act. The SAD leaders also demanded that the role of the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party in the sacrilege and police firing incidents be probed.
SIDHU HITS OUT AT SUKHBIR BADAL
Congress MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu who had been attacking his party’s government for allegedly delaying justice in the Faridkot sacrilege and Kotkapura police firing cases hit out at SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal for not bringing justice to the victims in the case during his tenure. Sidhu also targeted Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta asking him what action has been taken against Sukhbir’s brother-in-law and former minister Bikram Singh Majithia for his involvement in a multi-crore drug scandal.