A Punjab Police SIT probing the 2015 Kotkapura police firing incident in which two men were killed submitted a supplementary chargesheet in a local court in Faridkot district on Tuesday, official sources said. The 2,400-page charge sheet was filed by the Special Investigation Team, headed by Additional Director General of Police L. K. Yadav.
The SIT had filed a 7,000-page chargesheet in the matter on February 24. In the first chargesheet, the SIT had named the then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, then deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal, and ex-DGP Sumedh Saini, along with several others. Sukhbir Badal and Sumedh Saini were named as the “masterminds of conspiracy for use of illegal excessive force to hide the inaction” of the state on three sacrilege incidents in Faridkot. Badal, the then-state chief minister, was blamed for “facilitating the execution of the conspiracy” in the 7,000-page charge sheet.
The series of incidents that threw several districts of the state into turmoil began with the theft of a ‘bir’ (copy) of the Guru Granth Sahib from Faridkot district in 2015. Soon after, several handwritten sacrilegious posters were found pasted on walls at places in the district, while people in Bargari village found torn pages of the holy book scattered around.
The incidents triggered vociferous protests in Faridkot. As the police mounted resistance to rein in agitations, Gurjeet Singh and Kishan Bhagwan Singh, were killed in Behbal Kalan and a few injured at Kotkapura in Faridkot in police firing. While the Yadav-led SIT is probing the Kotkapura firing case, another SIT led by Additional Director General of Police Naunihal Singh is investigating the Behbal Kalan firing incident.
