Ludhiana12 minutes agoAuthor Dilbag Danish
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The biggest issue of Punjab is to take action against the culprits of sacrilege. The sentiments of every Punjabi are attached to this and people want that those who sacrilege Sri Guru Granth Sahib 6 and a half years ago should be put behind bars. Charanjit Channi has held his first press conference after taking oath as the 17th CM of Punjab, but he refrained from directly blaming anyone for the sacrilege.
Channi only said that during the tenure of his government there will be justice for everyone and no concession will be made to anyone. When Channi, as Chief Minister, was saying this, Navjot Sidhu was sitting next to him. It is worth mentioning that till now Sidhu and Channi have been directly blaming the Akali leaders for the sacrilege. After the changed stand of both the leaders, it will be interesting to see whether the investigation of sacrilege incidents and Kotkapura shooting will be completed soon. And will its heat reach the then CM Parkash Singh Badal or even Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal?
The issue of sacrilege and firing is in the court
On 1 June 2015, the old form of Sri Guru Granth Sahib was stolen from the Gurdwara of Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village in Kotkapura. On 12 August 2015, parts of this holy book were found scattered outside the Gurudwara of Bargadi village. This enraged the Sikh organizations and blocked the main square of Kotkapura. After that, the angry sangat also staged a dharna on the highway outside Behbalkalan village. On 14 August 2015, two people were killed in police firing while removing people who were staging a sit-in in village Bahbalkalan. In Kotkapura too, lathi-charge and firing was done to disperse the protesters, in which many people were injured. After this incident, Sikh organizations and angry people started demonstrations at many places in the state. Sensing the seriousness of the matter, the then Badal government handed over the investigation of these cases to the CBI, which was withdrawn by the Captain government. In the last six and a half years, four SITs of Punjab Police have investigated the sacrilege, Behbalkalan and Kotkapura shootings. Presently these cases are pending in the court.
Captain Sarkar formed SIT after the report of Ranjit Singh Commission
After the 2017 assembly elections, the Congress government, which took power in Punjab, first formed a commission headed by retired judge Ranjit Singh to investigate the incidents of sacrilege and after the report of this commission came, Punjab Police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed. . This SIT, headed by IPS officer Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, in its investigation report submitted to the Punjab and Haryana High Court, described the role of some Akali leaders as suspicious, but the High Court not only rejected the report of the SIT outright but also the intention of Kunwar Vijay Pratap. But also raised questions. In this case, giving a clean chit to the then CM, the High Court ordered the Punjab government to form a new SIT to investigate the case.
Sidhu camp has been demanding arrest of Akali leaders
Navjot Singh Sidhu, Deputy CM Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and other Congress leaders have been alleging that the report of the SIT was dismissed in the High Court due to the then Advocate General (AG) of Punjab Government Atul Nanda not advocating the right way. Randhawa had a heated discussion with the then CM Captain Amarinder Singh regarding this in the cabinet meeting on 27 April 2021 itself. After this heat, Randhawa submitted his resignation to the Captain in the cabinet meeting itself. The Sidhu camp has been accusing the captain of playing friendly matches with the Akali Dal while being the CM. Sidhu, Channi, Randhawa and all the leaders of their camp have been demanding the arrest of Akali leaders by naming them in the sacrilege case.
Now Captain Amarinder Singh is not the Chief Minister and the chair of CM is with Sidhu’s special friend Charanjit Singh Channi. In such a situation, it will be interesting to see how the new government now challenges the High Court’s order dismissing the SIT report in the Supreme Court? And what is the stand of the Supreme Court on this?
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