2015 Kotkapura firing: SAD chief Badal appears before Punjab Police SIT

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday appeared before a Punjab Police special investigation team (SIT) probing the 2015 Kotkapura police firing case.

Chandigarh:Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday appeared before a Punjab Police special investigation team (SIT) probing the 2015 Kotkapura police firing case. Led by Additional Director General of Police L K Yadav, the SIT had summoned Badal, who was then the deputy chief minister and home minister of the state.

Earlier, the SIT had summoned Badal on August 30, but the SAD chief did not appear before it. His party had said that Badal had not been served summons. On September 6, Badal was questioned by another SIT investigating the 2015 Behbal Kalan police firing incident. The case relates to the theft of a 'bir' (copy) of the Guru Granth Sahib, putting up handwritten sacrilegious posters, and torn pages of the holy book being found scattered at Bargari in Faridkot in 2015.

These incidents had triggered protests, and two people, Gurjeet Singh and Krishan Bhagwan Singh, were killed in Behbal Kalan and a few were injured at Kotkapura in Faridkot in police firing. Badal on Wednesday reached the Punjab Police Officers' Institute here around 11 am. Senior party leaders and supporters gathered outside the institute, raising slogans against the AAP government in the state. The police have put up barricades outside the venue.

Speaking to reporters, SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia said party leaders had always fully cooperated in the investigation into the 2015 sacrilege-related incidents. The Akali Dal had earlier accused the AAP government of playing politics over the issue of sacrilege incidents in order to divert attention from its "failures". (PTI)