Chandigarh: Former Deputy Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Badal has been summoned by the Punjab Police's Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the 2015 Behbalkalan shooting case, a day after the SIT summoned him in the Kotkapura shooting case, which also took place the same day. The SIT has asked Badal to appear on September 6 to record his statement.
On Wednesday, the SIT asked Badal, the then Deputy CM to appear before it on September 14 in connection with the investigation of the Kotkapura firing on the Sikh Sangat in 2015. Badal was earlier summoned by the SIT to record his statement on August 30, but he failed to turn up, prompting the SIT to issue a fresh summon.
Also read: SIT issues fresh summons to Sukhbir Badal in Kotkapura firing case
However, the SAD maintained that Sukhbir Singh Badal has not received any summons in writing and he only came to know about the development through social media. The SIT summons comes after the Punjab and Haryana High Court had directed the Punjab government vide order dated 09-04-2021 to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe into the case.
The probe is related to two FIRs, both registered in the Kotkapura Police Station in the firing by the police on October 12 in Kotkapura and Behbalkalan on the Sikh Sangat during their protest against the alleged sacrilege in Bargari. Two Sikh protesters Gurjeet Singh of Sarawan village and Krishan Bhagwan Singh of Niamiwala village in Faridkot district were killed in the firing at Behbal Kalan.
The fresh summons by the SIT is believed to be a major way forward in the case. Pertinently, the SIT in June last year quizzed Sukhbir Singh Badal. Sukhbir was the Deputy Chief Minister and also the Home Minister when the incidents of the desecration of a religious text and the subsequent police firing took place in Faridkot in 2015. Prior to that, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patriarch Parkash Singh Badal was also questioned in the case.
