By PTI
CHANDIGARH: AAP MLA and former IPS officer Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh has written to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, pointing out that the 2015 Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura police firing cases have not been “pursued in a proper and just manner”.
Singh’s letter prompted the opposition Congress to attack the AAP government, asking it to clear its stand.
The incidents related to the theft of a ‘bir’ (copy) of the Guru Ganth Sahib, putting up handwritten sacrilegious posters and torn pages of the holy book found scattered at Bargari took place in Faridkot in 2015.
These incidents led to anti-sacrilege protests in Faridkot.
In the police firing at protesters in October 2015, two people were killed in Behbal Kalan while some people were injured at Kotkapura in Faridkot.
Singh took premature retirement in April last year after the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed a report filed by him into the Kotkapura firing incident.
Singh was part of the Special Investigation Team which was probing the Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan policing firing incidents.
He later joined the Aam Aadmi Party and got elected from Amritsar North seat in the 2022 assembly polls.
In a letter to Mann, Singh said, “It is brought to your kind notice that various writ petitions are pending regarding Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura firing cases in the Hon’ble Punjab and Haryana High Court and Hon’ble Supreme Court of India. I have got to know from newspapers that these cases have not been pursued in a proper and just manner.”
Even in the Court of Sessions at Faridkot, these cases have been abandoned from the prosecution side, he said.
“You know it very well that I resigned from the service of the IPS on 9 April 2021 because of indifferent attitude of the then government in power and nexus of the ruling class with the high profile accused persons,” the MLA said.
Singh claimed that he came to know that the accused were “trying hard to get the Behbal Kalan case investigation and ongoing process of trial in the Faridkot Sessions Court quashed and get themselves acquitted without facing a trial in the learned Court of Sessions”.
The former IPS officer said, “You also know that the SITs constituted by the Government of Punjab after my resignation have not done anything to get these cases to logical conclusion. Therefore, it is requested to defend these petitions in the Hon’ble High Court and to proceed with the ongoing trial in Faridkot Sessions Court.”
AAP chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang while commenting on Singh’s letter tweeted, “Everyone is open to express his opinion, staying within the ambit of code of conduct.”
The CM is open-hearted and a very receptive person, he said while adding that one must refrain from indulging in public outburst, which is detrimental to the interests of the party.
Reacting to the letter, senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly, Partap Singh Bajwa, asked CM Mann to clear his government’s stand.
“I urge @BhagwantMann ji to clear the stance of @PunjabGovtIndia on ensuring justice in Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura firing cases as asked by @Kvijaypratap Ji @ArvindKejriwal ji had stated that within 24 hours this could be closed and yet there seems to be no action till date,” said Bajwa in a tweet.
The Punjab Congress also sought a clarification from the Aam Aadmi Party government over the letter.
State Congress general secretary Sandeep Singh Sandhu said, “Normally, AAP is so quick in reacting to everything but wondered why it maintained such a studied silence over the revelations made by its own MLA, who claims to have identified the culprits and even resigned from service after being dissatisfied with the government of that time.”
Sandhu said during the election campaign, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, then flanked by Kunwar Vijay Pratap and Bhagwant Mann, had said if AAP came to power, culprits will be jailed within 24 hours.
