2015 Kotkapura firing: Punjab Police SIT questions SAD patriarch Parkash Singh Badal

A Punjab Police Special Investigation Team probing the 2015 Kotkapura police firing case on Wednesday questioned former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal for around three hours at his residence here.The SIT is led by Additional Director General of Police L K Yadav.

A Punjab Police Special Investigation Team probing the 2015 Kotkapura police firing case on Wednesday questioned former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal for around three hours at his residence here.

The SIT is led by Additional Director General of Police L K Yadav. Badal was the chief minister of Punjab when the police firing took place in 2015.

On September 14, the SIT had questioned Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal in connection with this case.

On September 6, Sukhbir Badal was questioned by another SIT investigating the 2015 Behbal Kalan police firing incident. He was the deputy chief minister back then.

The incidents relate to the theft of a 'bir' (copy) of the Guru Granth Sahib, handwritten sacrilegious posters, and pages of the holy book being torn at Bargari in Faridkot seven years ago.

These incidents had triggered protests during which two people were killed at Behbal Kalan and a few injured at Kotkapura in police firing.

The Akali Dal had earlier accused the Aam Aadmi Party government of doing politics over the case in order to divert people's attention from its ''failures''.

The SIT on Tuesday visited Kotkapura, where the firing against the anti-sacrilege protesters took place on October 14, 2015. The incident will complete seven years on October 14.

The questioning by the SIT comes days after AAP MLA and former IPS officer Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh raised questions over the probe being carried out by it.

Amritsar North legislator Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh had raised the issue in the Punjab Assembly last month.

Singh, while referring to the summoning of Sukhbir Singh Badal on September 14 for the 2015 Kotkapura police firing case, had alleged that the questioning of the SAD chief was not done by the Yadav-led SIT and he was sent back after offering ''chai and pakoda'' (tea and fritters).

The former IPS officer had then slammed the previous Amarinder Singh government for promoting Yadav to the rank of additional director general of police from inspector general in order to appoint him as head of the SIT.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court had last year quashed the probe report of the Kotkapura firing incident filed by the previous SIT.

Later, the previous government had formed the new SIT led by ADGP L K Yadav to probe the Kotkapura police firing incident following the directions of the high court.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)