Punjab govt sets up new SIT to probe Kotkapura police firing

Acting on the direction of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Punjab Government on Friday constituted a new three-member special investigation team (SIT) to probe the Kotkapura police firing six years back Additional Director General of Police (Vigilance Bureau) L K Yadav, Ludhiana Commissioner of Police Ludhiana Rakesh Agarwal and Faridkot Range DIG Surjit Singh will preferably complete the investigation within six months, the government ordered, following the court directions.

The high court on April 9 had quashed a report by an earlier Punjab Police SIT into the 2015 firing at people protesting in Kotkapura over the alleged desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib elsewhere in Faridkot district.

The court had then directed the state government to set up a new SIT, without Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, the Indian Police Service officer who was part of that team.

Singh took voluntary retirement after the court order.

Police had also opened fire at a similar demonstration in Behbal Kalan, also in Faridkot, where two people were killed. A separate probe is underway in that case.

The ruling Congress in Punjab has constantly targeted the Shiromani Akali Dal, which was in power then in the state, over the two incidents.

The new SIT will investigate the two FIRs registered on October 14, 2015 and August 7, 2018 in connection with the Kotkapura incident.

The Punjab cabinet had last month decided to set up a new SIT, following the court directive.

The court order was on pleas by the then Kotkapura SHO Gurdeep Singh and another policeman who sought quashing of the second FIR registered in August 2018. They had also sought the removal of Vijay Pratap Singh from the SIT.

The state Home Department order said the new SIT would ensure "meticulous compliance" with the directions of the high court stipulating that there would be no interference from any quarter, internal or external, in the investigation.

The SIT, made up of the three IPS officers, shall work jointly and all its members would put their signatures on all the proceedings of the investigation and the final report.

The SIT would not report to any state executive or police authority regarding the investigation and would report only to the concerned magistrate, it said.

The members of SIT have also been directed not to leak any part of the investigation and refrain from interacting with the media on the probe.

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