Rejecting the ‘hurried’ CBI closure report in the Bargari sacrilege case, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Wednesday said that it had caused a deep sense of hurt and anguish among the Sikh community and should be immediately withdrawn to ensure further detailed investigations in the matter.
“The CBI had not only overlooked certain crucial aspects of the investigation but had failed in its duty to identify the culprits and bring them to book, as was expected of the premier agency,” said the Chief Minister.
Demanding reopening of the case for further investigations by the country’s top investigative agency, Capt Amarinder said: “For reasons best known to them, the CBI had unexpectedly closed the case in an unusually hurried manner, which raised several questions on its handling of the matter.”
Many aspects of the case, including financial transactions and linkages with foreign-based entities, had been conveniently ignored in the CBI probe, the Chief Minister noted, seeking a review of the closure decision.
The CBI had also not identified and examined certain key witnesses or suspects whose examination could have shed light on the cases dismissed by the CBI in its closure report, he added.
Capt Amarinder said that the previous Punjab Government had, in November 2015, handed over to CBI the investigation of three sacrilege cases — theft of a ‘bir’ of Guru Granth Sahib from a Burj Jawahar Singh Walagurdwara on June 1, 2015, putting up of hand-written sacrilegious posters in Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala on September 25 and torn pages of the holy book being found at Bargari on October 12, 2015.
The CBI, it may be recalled, had filed its closure report on July 4, giving a clean chit to the accused in the 2015 Bargari sacrilege case, while rejecting the findings of the Punjab Police SIT in the case.
The Chief Minister pointed out that the CBI was controlled by the Central Government, led by the BJP which was an ally of the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) at the time of the sacrilege incident. “The needle of suspicion in the Bargari case had been pointed at SAD by the Justice Ranjit Singh (Retd) Commission,” he observed, adding that, given this context, the CBI decision to file closure report was highly questionable.
“CBI’s unexpected decision to file the closure report had pained not just the Sikhs in India and but also the large Sikh diaspora abroad...The sacrilege of Sri Guru Granth Sahib is a grave and sensitive issue which could not be dismissed in this manner, without taking action against those guilty of perpetuating the crime,” said the Chief Minister.
At the same time, he warned that such an act could have serious repercussions for the state’s law and order, which could in turn have major consequences for the country.
Given the sensitivity of the issue, the need for a fair and impartial probe into every aspect of the issue was needed to take the case to its logical conclusion, said Capt Amarinder.
I NEVER GAVE CLEAN CHIT TO ANYBODY: SUKHBIR
SAD president Sukhbir Badal on Wednesday made it clear that he had “never issued a clean chit to anybody nor described the arrests of Dera men in the sacrilege case as wrong”.Taking exception to reports in a section of media “misquoting” his observations on the CBI closure report on the sacrilege case, Sukhbir said that his statement had been taken totally out of context.
“Rather in the media interaction, I emphasized that the SAD strongly opposed this closure report and wanted the case to be taken to its logical conclusion,” he said.
Referring to the closure report, Sukhbir said: “I strongly reiterate my own and my party's stand against the closure of investigations. We stand for withdrawal of the closure report. We have urged the Union Government to direct the CBI to take the investigation into the heinous case of sacrilege of Sri Guru Granth Sahib to its logical conclusion.”
“SAD wants the real culprits and their sponsors, as well as the masterminds behind the whole sinister conspiracy, to be fully exposed in the public eye, tried and punished in an exemplary way so that it serves as an effective deterrent in future,” he said.
Sukhbir said that every Sikh is deeply pained to see that shocking and heinous incidents of sacrilege continue to take place in the State as well as the fact that the Congress Government has shown no seriousness or urgency in getting to the root of the conspiracy.
“It is also unfortunate that instead of focusing on punishing the real culprits responsible for cases of sacrilege, the Congress Government is only interested in playing politics on this sensitive issue. Nothing will come out of this fissiparous and divisive politics. Efforts should be made to find closure to the angst of the Sikh community by going after the guilty whoever they may be, instead of politicizing the matter,” he added.
AAP ACCUSES MODI, BADAL, CAPT GOVTS FOR SHIELDING THOSE BEHIND DESECRATION, FIRING INCIDENTS
Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Kotkapura MLA Kultar Singh Sandhwan on Wednesday alleged that, given the recent developments doing the rounds in the incidents of desecration of Sri Guru Granth Sahib and the statements and counter-statements coming from those privy to the incidents had left nothing to speculation that SAD chief Sukhbir Badal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, never wanted that those behind the incidents of sacrilege and firing incident at Behbal Kalan- Kotkapura faced the public eye.
“The efforts are being made from the top echelons of power to offer protective cover to the culprits whose names have prominently figured in many investigation reports,” said Sandhwan.
Sandhwan said that the high-voltage drama enacted by Sukhbir Badal and his party over the closure report merely to earn some political brownie point, had now gone in support of the report, stating that he had been changing colours faster than a chameleon.
Those behind the acts could not be brought to justice until or unless the Punjab and Haryana High Court got the incidents investigated under its watch, he said adding that the CBI was dancing to the tunes of the SAD alliance partners government at the Centre and so did other investigations being impacted by political masters, like Captain Amarinder Singh who never wanted the Badals to face the heat of the desecration incidents.