Pb SIT to probe 2015 sacrilege cases as SC junks CBI plea to investigate them: CM


PTI | Chandigarh | Updated: 20-02-2020 19:30 IST | Created: 20-02-2020 19:30 IST
Pb SIT to probe 2015 sacrilege cases as SC junks CBI plea to investigate them: CM
  • Country:
  • India

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday said the special investigation team of Punjab police will now probe into the cases of the desecration of religious texts and police firing incidents in 2015 as the Supreme Court has rejected the CBI plea to investigate them. Singh made the announcement in the state assembly on the first day of its Budget session.

"I want to make an announcement and I think the entire House will appreciate it. You all know about the issue of Behbal Kalan and Bargari (sacrilege cases) which had been going on for long. We started investigations. The previous (SAD-BJP) government had handed over the inquiry into matter to the CBI. "The CBI in the lower court filed a closure report and thereafter they moved the Supreme Court, saying this matter should be looked into by them.

"It is a matter of joy today that the decision of the House (handing over the probe to SIT) has been upheld by the SC and the CBI has lost the case," he added. "Now we will go to the bottom of the case," Singh told the House drawing applause from the treasury benches and AAP members.

Singh also assured the House that the SIT investigation into the 2015 sacrilege incidents at Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala villages and police firing incidents at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura in Faridkot would be taken to its logical conclusion. Two persons, who were part of the anti-sacrilege protesters, were killed in the police firing at Behbal Kalan in 2015.

Amarinder Singh said the apex court has vindicated the state government's stand by rejecting the CBI plea to let them probe the cases. Describing the Apex court decision as "major legal victory" for the state government, an official statement later said the Supreme Court on Thursday morning allowed the state to carry on its investigations into the sacrilege cases and the subsequent police firing in these cases.

During the hearing in the apex court, a division bench of justices Rohington Nariman and Ravindra Bhatt dismissed the CBI plea, said Punjab Advocate General Atul Nanda in a statement later. Previous SAD-BJP government had handed over three sacrilege cases -- 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 to the CBI for probe.

The Punjab assembly, however, in 2018 had passed a resolution, withdrawing the probe from the CBI and handing over the matter to SIT of Punjab police. Later last year, the CBI filed its closure report in the CBI court at Mohali, but took a u-turn later praying before the court to keep the report in abeyance and said the investigation was still continuing.

The Congress-led government had accused the Centre of pressurising the CBI at the behest of Badals to scuttle the probe. Main opposition AAP MLA Aman Arora, meanwhile, hailed the SC decision and urged the CM on the floor of the House to ensure time-bound investigations into the cases so that the guilty could be punished at the earliest.

PTI CHS VSD RAX RAX

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

Give Feedback