A Special Investigation Team probing the 2015 Kotkapura police firing incident questioned Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal on Saturday for around four hours
Badal reached the Punjab Police Officers' Institute at Sector 32 here around 11 am following summons by the SIT. He was the deputy chief minister and holding the home portfolio when incidents of desecration of religious texts and the subsequent police firing at people protesting against it had taken place in Faridkot in 2015.
Several senior Shiromani Akali Dal leaders, including Bikram Singh Majithia, Balwinder Singh Bhundar, N K Sharma and Daljit Singh Cheema, reached the Punjab Police Officers’ Institute in a show of support to Badal. After his questioning, Badal came out of the institute at 3.10 pm and then waved at the Akali Dal workers from his vehicle.
On Tuesday, the SIT led by Additional Director General of Police (Vigilance Bureau) L K Yadav had questioned Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch and former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal for over two hours. The Punjab government had formed the new SIT to probe the Kotkapura police firing incident following the directions of the Punjab and Haryana HC.
The new SIT is investigating the two FIRs registered on October 14, 2015 and August 7, 2018 in connection with the Kotkapura incident. The High Court had on April 9 this year quashed a report by an earlier Punjab Police SIT into the firing at people protesting in Kotkapura in 2015 over the alleged desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib in Faridkot district. Police had also opened fire at a similar demonstration in Behbal Kalan, also in Faridkot, where two people were killed. A separate probe is underway in that case.
Meanwhile, Akali Dal leader Maheshinder Singh Grewal told reporters, “It is a malicious investigation." Earlier in the day, Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu slammed Sukhbir Singh Badal and said the new SIT "inches closer to justice for Punjab's soul".