Never met actor Akshay Kumar outside Punjab: Sukhbir tells SIT team

SAD chief and former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal Monday told the SIT members he has never met Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar outside Punjab.

Badal appeared before the special investigation team (SIT) probing the 2015 police firing incidents at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura following sacrilege incidents in Faridkot, even as he described the SIT investigation as politically motivated.

Sukhbir Badal, who was quizzed by SIT at Punjab police headquarters here for about an hour, was also asked whether he met the actor in Mumbai.

The name of actor Akshay Kumar was mentioned in Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report on sacrilege incidents which was tabled in Punjab Vidhan Sabha in August this year.

"They (SIT) asked me whether you met Akshay in Mumbai. I asked them what is the proof behind this claim. I told them you are asking me a question and not telling me who said this. They said they cannot share.

" I told them I never met Akshay Kumar outside Punjab in my life. I met him at a sports function (in Punjab), he told reporters.

Notably, SIT, besides summoning Sukhbir and former CM Parkash Singh Badal, had also summoned Akshay Kumar.

According to the report, a meeting between Sukhbir Singh Badal and Dera Sacha Sauda sect head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in connection with the release of latter's movie 'MSG' was held at actor's flat in Mumbai in 2015.

It said the meeting was held before the pardon given to Dera head in a blasphemy case.

The movie MSG could not be released in Punjab in September 2015 because of an edict by Akal Takht.

Akshay Kumar had then denied having met the Dera Sacha Sauda sect head.

Meanwhile, Sukhbir Badal charged that all the questions asked by SIT members were "politically motivated."