India News | Sacrilege Cases: Punjab Govt Appoints Advocate R S Bains as Special Public Prosecutor
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. To ensure speedy justice in sacrilege and police firing incidents, the Punjab government on Friday appointed senior advocate of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Rajwinder Singh Bains as special public prosecutor, an official statement said.
Chandigarh, Oct 1 (PTI) To ensure speedy justice in sacrilege and police firing incidents, the Punjab government on Friday appointed senior advocate of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Rajwinder Singh Bains as special public prosecutor, an official statement said.
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, who also holds the portfolio of Home Department, said the newly appointed special public prosecutor has been mandated to appear before the trial court/courts besides the Punjab and Haryana High Court on behalf of the state government in these cases.
Bains will represent the state in the sacrilege-related cases of 2015, including police firing incidents in Faridkot.
The move to appoint a special prosecutor is being seen as an attempt to placate Navjot Singh Sidhu, who had resigned as Punjab Congress chief.
Sidhu on Wednesday had raised questions over the appointments of the state's advocate general, besides the DGP and "tainted" leaders.
Sidhu has been demanding delivery of justice in the sacrilege and police firing incidents.
He had raised questions over the appointment of APS Deol, who was the counsel of former Punjab DGP Sumedh Singh Saini, as the AG.
The desecration of Guru Granth Sahib had taken place in Faridkot district in 2015 during the previous SAD-BJP regime.
The sacrilege cases were related to theft of a ''bir'' (copy) of Guru Granth Sahib from a Burj Jawahar Singh Wala gurdwara on June 1, 2015, putting up of hand-written sacrilegious posters in Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala on September 25 and torn pages of the holy book being found at Bargari on October 12, 2015 in Faridkot.
Post the sacrilege incidents, protests had also broken out and police had opened fire at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan in Faridkot.
Two people, part of the anti-sacrilege protesters, were killed in the police firing at Behbal Kalan in 2015.
(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)