The Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to probe the 2015 Kotkapura po-lice firing incident has questioned former Deputy CM and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Chief Sukhbir Singh Badal at the Punjab Police Officers Institute in Sector 32 on Saturday for over four hours.
In 2015, when the firing on protestors took place, Badal was deputy chief min-ister and held the home portfolio.
Following the summon by the special probe team, SAD Chief arrived at the Punjab Police Officers Institute in Sector 32 around 11 am. Along with Badal, several senior SAD leaders- Bikram Singh Majithia, Balwinder Singh Bhundar, NK Sharma and Daljit Singh Cheema made their way to Punjab Police Offi-cers Institute to show support to him.
Earlier on June 22, the Additional Director General of Police (Vigilance Bureau) LK Yadav-led Special investigation team had interrogated Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch and former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for two and a half hours.
Following the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Punjab government had formed a new SIT to look into the two FIRs filed in connection with the Kotkapura incident on October 14, 2015, and August 7, 2018.
On April 9, 2021, the high court of Punjab and Haryana had quashed the re-port by a Punjab Police SIT into the 2015 firing case. Since then, Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu has been very vocal against it and has constantly criticized CM Capt Amarinder Singh saying he failed to provide justice to the victims of the case.
Meanwhile, today Sidhu slammed Sukhbir Badal after he alleged political in-terference in the probe. Reacting to Badal’s allegation, Sidhu said that the new special investigation team is inching closer to justice for Punjab’s soul.’
“6 Yrs since sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib Ji... No Justice in 2 yrs of your rule... No Justice in the following 4.5 yrs... Today, New SIT inches closer to Justice for Punjab's Soul & you cry of political interference... Political interfer-ence was that which delayed Justice by 6 yrs,” Sidhu said on Twitter.
He also tagged Sukhbir Badal’s tweet in which Badal could be seen accusing CM Amarinder Singh of implicating the SAD leadership in false cases.
The tweet by Sukhbir Singh Badal read, "While farmers suffer, CM is busy keeping Gandhi family happy & has accepted @RahulGandhi's directive to implicate SAD leadership in false cases. New SIT formed after the old one was indicted over political interference, is being run by state vigilance dept, so nothing has changed."