Amarinder Ridicules SAD Chief Sukhbir Badal Over HC Order in 2015 Kotkapura Firing Case

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Sunday ridiculed SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal for jumping the gun on the high court order in the 2015 Kotkapura firing case. He urged the Akali leader to refrain from making merry as the matter was far from over.

The Punjab and Haryana High court had on Friday quashed the state's SIT probe report into the Kotkapura firing at a gathering of Sikh demonstrators who were protesting against the 'sacrilegious incidents of Guru Granth Sahib's pages found strewn in Faridkot in 2015. The bench of Justice Rajbir Sehrawat had also asked the state government to reconstitute the special investigation team (SIT) without IPS officer Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh.

Reacting to the verdict, Badal on Saturday said that the court order had made it clear that the chief minister was not interested in finding the guilty, but was using the case to implicate the Badal family and the SIT was formed to indulge in political vendetta. Hitting back at the opposition party, the CM on Sunday asked Badal to at least wait for the copy of the orders, before claiming victory.

The fact is that there has been no official announcement yet of the court verdict, the CM said in an official statement here. In any case, whatever the verdict in the matter, I stand by the investigation of the SIT, which has, at no point, absolved the Badal family of involvement in the heinous incident, that led to innocent people losing their lives, he said.

Reiterating that his government will challenge any court order that either quashes the SIT probe or removes the officer in charge, Amarinder said Badal's desperation to celebrate his non-victory exposed his panic in the face of what he must have seen as writing on the wall, given the direction in which the SIT investigation was pointing. The SIT has so far charge-sheeted six people in the Kotkapura case, including then Kotkapura Akali MLA Mantar Singh Brar.

The CM also took a dig at the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for trying to make political hay over the issue with their frivolous and unfounded allegations.

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