Kotkapura firing case: Sidhu questions delay in ensuring justice

Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu on Monday questioned the alleged deliberate delay in ensuring justice in the Kotkapura police firing case and demanded a fair and time-bound investigation.

Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu on Monday questioned the alleged ''deliberate delay'' in ensuring justice in the Kotkapura police firing case and demanded a fair and time-bound investigation. The incident had taken place at Faridkot’s Kotkapura in 2015, when police opened fire on people protesting the desecration of a religious text.

Earlier in the month, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had rejected the probe report on the incident, prompting resignation by IG Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, who headed the SIT investigation the case.

After the court order, Sidhu has been critical of his own government over the issue. He had attacked Punjab CM Amarinder Singh, accusing him of evading responsibility in the case. Sidhu on Monday said, ''We have a choice, either to accept Hon. High Court's Judgment or appeal against it in the Hon. Supreme Court.'' ''But the problem all along has been the same - INTENT & DELIBERATE DELAY, it is not about forming another SIT but what have the SITs achieved in the past 6 years?,” Sidhu said in a tweet. Sidhu said history has shown that reinvestigation by the same agency ''compromises the case, makes the guilty wiser by allowing them a second chance to defend''. ''Yet if the govt decides, it should ensure fair & time bound investigation, and set up a fast-track court for a day-to-day trial,'' Sidhu tweeted. ''Armed with India's most competent lawyers, is the only way, without delay to make the government accountable and transparent in public eye on this very important emotive issue, which should have been top priority from day one or else this could lead to irreparable damage,'' the Congress leader said in another tweet.