Chandigarh: Consequent to the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Punjab Government on Friday constituted a new three-member Special Investigation Team (SIT), comprising of senior IPS officers, and directed it to complete the investigations into the Kotkapura firing incident, preferably in six months, as per the court’s orders.
An official spokesperson said that the newly constituted SIT, comprising ADGP/Vigilance Bureau L.K. Yadav, Commissioner of Police Ludhiana Rakesh Agarwal and DIG Faridkot Range Surjit Singh, would investigate the two FIRs (dated Oct 14, 2015 and Aug 7, 2018) registered in connection with the Kotkapura firing incidents.
The order explicitly states that the SIT shall work jointly, and all its members would put their signatures on all the proceedings of the investigation and the final report. The members of the SIT would also be cited as witnesses in the list as the investigating officers, the order states.
The order further states that the SIT would not report to any state executive or police authority regarding the investigations and would report only to the concerned Magistrate, in accordance with law. The SIT members have been also directed not leak any part of the investigation and refrain from interacting with the media regarding the aspects of the investigations.