Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) legislator and former IPS officer Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh on Friday put its own party’s government in dock over the issue of sacrilege and related firing cases. AAP MLA from Amritsar North has urged Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to deal with the Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan police firing incidents with a strong hand as the accused are trying hard to get acquitted.
Kunwar Vijay, in a letter to Mann, laid emphasis on defending petitions pending in the High Court and proceeding with the trial in the Faridkot sessions court.
“It is brought to your notice that writ petitions are pending regarding Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura firing cases in the Punjab and Haryana High Court and the Supreme Court. I have got to know from newspapers that these cases have not been pursued in a proper and just manner. Even in the sessions court in Faridkot, these cases have been abandoned from the prosecution side. I resigned from the IPS because of the indifferent attitude of the then government in power and nexus of the ruling class with the high-profile accused,” he said in the letter.
The former IPS officer said: “I have got to know that the accused are trying hard to get the Behbal Kalan investigation and trial in the Faridkot sessions court quashed to get acquitted without facing trial.”
“I have learnt from newspapers that petitions are listed on May 20 before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, such as Suhail Singh Brar versus State of Punjab and others, civil writ petition 2060 of 2022. In a case, where the process of trial is going on in the sessions court, the accused have preferred civil litigation, showing their obvious intent and manner,” he said in the letter.
Concluding, Kunwar Vijay said: “The SITs constituted by the Government of Punjab after my resignation have not done anything to take these cases to their logical conclusion. Therefore, you are requested to defend these petitions in the High Court and to proceed with the trial in the sessions court.”
Kunwar Vijay has said earlier that the probe report quashed by the High Court was submitted in the Faridkot district court in the form of nine challans. “Of the nine, five challans have been quashed. But four still stand. I don’t want to comment on the high court verdict, but I don’t know whether this verdict has been pronounced after reading my report or not,” he had said in Amritsar on April 30, 2021.
“The report has been prepared with hard work of two years and with transparency. Each line is evidence in itself. Any court verdict would be acceptable for us, had it been pronounced after considering all witnesses and evidence. These evidences have not been seen,” he added.
CONG SEEKS ANSWERS FROM AAP ON KUNWAR VIJAY’s LETTER
Punjab Congress on Friday sought clarification from AAP Government over the letter written by its own MLA Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh that no movement was being made on the issue of sacrilege and police firing cases and the trial was being derailed. “Normally, AAP is so quick in reacting to everything but wondered why it had maintained such a studied silence over revelations made by its own MLA, who claims to have identified the culprits and even resigned from service after being dissatisfied with the government of that time,” said Punjab Congress general secretary Capt Sandeep Singh Sandhu.
Capt Sandhu said that during the election campaign, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, then flanked by Kunwar Vijay Pratap and Bhagwant Mann, had said that the report had already been made and culprits identified and if AAP came to power, culprits will be jailed within 24 hours. Now, not just 24 hours, 60 days have passed and the issue has been put on the backburner, he added. PPCC general secretary asked the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who is also heading the Home portfolio, as what were the compulsions that he was not acting on the report of his own MLA. “People of Punjab are waiting for action and not explanation and you have failed on both”, Sandhu told the government.
WHAT HAPPENED TO 24-HR DEADLINE ON SACRILEGE CASES: BJP ASKS AAP GOVT
Lashing out at AAP-led Punjab Government, BJP on Friday asked the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann as to what happened to their promise, made before elections, of putting the culprits responsible for sacrilege and subsequent police firing in jail within 24 hours of farming the government.
Also referring to former IPS officer and Amritsar North AAP MLA Kunwar Vijay Pratap’s latest charges that AAP government was not taking any interest in the sacrilege and police firing cases and there were attempts to derail it, Punjab BJP general secretary Dr Subhash Sharma reminded Mann that his party’s supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had promised that if the AAP came to power, those responsible for sacrilege will be put behind bars within 24 hours. “Now you are in the saddle for more than two months, what happened to your promise”, he asked the Chief Minister.
“You better act or face the same fate as the previous regimes,” he told the Chief Minister, while advising him, “instead of using your police force to register vendetta cases against your political opponents, use them for punishing the culprits of sacrilege and police firing on innocent protestors”.