Acting police chief holds SIT meet

Punjab's acting police chief V K Bhawara Monday held a meeting with the five-member SIT, probing into the desecration of religious texts and police firing incidents in the state in 2015.

The meeting was held in the wake of media reports suggesting rift among the SIT members over some contents of the chargesheet filed in a Faridkot court in the case of police firing at anti-desecration demonstrators at Kotkapura.

Director General of Police Bhawara, however, described the meeting as routine. Bhawara is presently officiating in place of DGP Dinkar Gupta, who has gone on leave.

It was a routine review meeting and it was one of the four meetings held today," said Bhawara.

Bhawara added that the Punjab police has written to the Home Department, seeking sanction for prosecution of the police officials named as accused in the police firing case.

The SIT chargesheet, filed on May 28, has indicted six persons on various charges, including attempt to murder, for firing at demonstrators in Kotkapura.

The indicted persons include former Akali MLA Mantar Singh Brar, Ludhiana's former Police Commissioner Paramraj Singh Umranangal and former Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Paramjit Singh Pannu.

They also include former SSP Charanjit Singh Sharma, former Deputy Superintendent of Police Baljit Singh and the then Kotkapura SHO Gurdeep Singh.

After the chargesheet was filed, a section of media had claimed that there were some differences among the SIT officials over some contents of the document prepared and signed by SIT member Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh.

The SIT is led by Additional Director General of Police Parbodh Kumar.

Other members are IG Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, IG (Crime) Arun Pal Singh, Kapurthala SSP Satinder Singh and ADCP Amritsar Bhupinder Singh.

The chargesheet claimed that the police firing at demonstrator was "totally unprovoked" and was the outcome of a "conspiracy" among high-profile politicians, senior police officials and the Sirsa-based Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and his followers.

The chragesheet said the roles of the then chief minister, Parkash Singh Badal, the then deputy chief minister, Sukhbir Singh Badal, the then DGP Sumedh Singh Saini and the then Ferozepur range DIG, Amar Singh Chahal were being further probed.

Meanwhile, the Akali Dal Monday decided to send its delegation Tuesday to the Election Commission to lodge protest against the Congress government allegedly ignoring a poll panel order in April to shift IPS officer Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh out of the SIT for violation of model code of conduct during the general elections.

He (Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh) continued to work as SIT member despite EC having directed the state government to shift him out. We will produce documentary evidence before the ECI in this regard, said SAD spokesperson Daljit Singh Cheema.

On an Akali Dal complaint against the IPS officer, the ECI had directed Punjab government to divest Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh of his present post for violating the model code of conduct.

Besides being an SIT member, Singh was also holding additional charges of IGP, Crime and the Organised Crime Control Unit chief.

On poll panel's directions, the Punjab government had posted Singh as IG, Counter Intlligence (Amritsar). He was also relieved of the SIT membership.