Former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has been summoned by the Special Investigation Team probing the 2015 Kotkapura police firing case. This came a day after Badal’s Akali Dal announced an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party for the next year’s assembly elections in Punjab.
A report by news agency PTI said that Badal, who’s in his nineties, has been asked ‘to appear in person with the relevant record before the Special Investigation Team on date 16.06.2021 at 10:30 am at PSPCL, Rest House, Phase-8 SAS Nagar (Mohali)’ for investigation of the cases. Badal was the chief minister of Punjab when during the police firing incident in Faridkot following reports of sacrilege. Torn pages of Sikh religious text Guru Granth Sahib were found at Bargari in Faridkot.
The then Akali Dal-BJP government of Punjab had decided to order a CBI inquiry into the sacrilege incident.
The three-member SIT consists of Additional Director General of Police (vigilance bureau) LK Yadav. Ludhiana Police Commissioner Rakesh Agrawal and Faridkot range DIG Surjit Singh.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court had earlier quashed all reports submitted by the previous SIT headed by Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, who retired as an Inspector General of Police. The Congress government later formed another SIT on 13 May.
Akali Dal’s Sukhbir Badal on Saturday announced his party’s alliance with Mayawati-led BSP for the next year’s assembly polls,, scheduled to be held in February.
