India News | AAP MLA Expresses 'dissatisfaction' over Punjab Police SIT Probe into Kotkapura Incident

Chandigarh, Sep 29 (PTI) AAP MLA and former IPS officer Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh on Thursday said he was dissatisfied with the Punjab Police SIT probe into the 2015 Kotkapura police firing incident.

He also questioned the previous Congress government over its appointing police officer L K Yadav as the head of the Special Investigation Team to investigate the incident.

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Singh was part of an earlier SIT, which was replaced by the one headed by Yadav.

On the second day of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha session here, Singh, who is the AAP MLA from the Amritsar North seat, raised the issue of 2015 sacrilege and police firing incident.

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The incident will complete seven years on October 14, he said.

The state was rocked with protests in October 2015, when several incidents of torn pages of the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy book, being found were reported from several places, beginning with Bargari in Faridkot.

There was also reported an incident of theft of 'bir' (a copy) of the Guru Granth Sahib and putting up of handwritten sacrilegious posters.

In the protests which these incidents triggered, two people were killed in Behbal Kalan and a few were injured at Kotkapura in Faridkot in police firing.

Referring to the summoning of Sukhbir Singh Badal on September 14 in the police firing case, Singh alleged that the Shiromani Akali Dal chief was not questioned by the Yadav-led SIT and was sent back with a repast of “tea and pakoras.”

The SIT, led by Additional Director General of Police L K Yadav, on September 14 had questioned SAD chief Badal, who at the time of the incident was deputy chief minister and also held the home affairs portfolio.

The former IPS officer alleged that Yadav was promoted to the rank of additional director general of police from the Inspector general by the previous Amarinder Singh government just so he could be appointed as the head of the SIT.

The AAP MLA claimed that he had even met the then CM Amarinder Singh on April 8 last year, a day before the Punjab and Haryana High court quashed the probe report of the Kotkapura firing incident.

The AAP MLA said he has challenged the order of the high court in the division bench and has urged Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to take up this matter up in the high court.

The Amarinder Singh government had last year formed the new SIT, led by ADGP L K Yadav, to probe the Kotkapura police firing incident following the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

After quashing the probe report, the HC had then directed the state government to set up a new SIT without Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, who was part of the earlier team.

Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh was part of the SIT which was probing the 2015 Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan policing firing incidents.

However, after the HC quashed the probe report on April 9 last year, he took premature retirement.

Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh after taking premature retirement last year joined the AAP and was elected as MLA from the Amritsar North seat.

After the AAP MLA named Badal in the house on Thursday, SAD MLA Sukhwinder Kumar sought to speak on the issue but walked out of the house, with two of his colleagues, when he was not allowed to speak.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)