Chandigarh, February 4 - Within months of the Akalis walkingout of the Union Government, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) onWednesday finally handed to the state police papers relating to the sacrilegecases, which Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh said clearly exposedthat the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) had been scuttling the process to preventtheir complicity in the cases from being exposed.
The documents and files relating to the cases were handedover to the Punjab Police hours before the deadline set by Punjab and HaryanaHigh Court for the CBI to do so was to expire. Notably, the Director Bureau ofInvestigation had written to Director CBI on January 18, 2021 to return theentire record to the State police without any further delay after withdrawal ofinvestigation of sacrilege cases from CBI and consequent return of the entirerecord including evidence gathered in cases transferred to CBI on November 2,2015 vide notification no.7/52113-2H4/619055/1.
The Chief Minister termed it a victory for the stategovernment and an endorsement of its stand that the CBI had, all these months,been trying to scuttle the investigation by the Special Investigative Team(SIT) of Punjab Police at behest of SAD, which was part of the ruling NDA atthe Centre till September 2020.
“It is clear now that Harsimrat Badal, as union minister,had been pressurising the central agency to obstruct the SIT probe by refusingto hand over the case files as she knew that her party’s role in the entireaffair would be exposed once the police take the investigation to its logicalconclusion,” said Captain Amarinder.
SAD’s complicity in the 2015 cases and their subsequentefforts to scuttle a fair and free probe would now be exposed with thecompletion of the SIT probe, he said, asserting that all those found guiltywould be identified and punished under the law. Nobody will be spared,irrespective of their political affiliation or position, he declared.
Pointing out that his government had withdrawn consent toCBI to probe the cases as far back as in 2018, after the Vidhan Sabhaunanimously resolved to do so, the Chief Minister said the SIT was alsoconstituted then to take over the investigation. The central agency had, formore than two years, been persistently refusing to hand the case files back tostate, he said, adding that the agency, which had earlier filed a closurereport in the matter, went on to constitute a new investigative team inSeptember 2019 with the clear and obvious aim of preventing the stategovernment from conducting its own impartial, fair and speedy probe, he added.
The shocking part, according to the Chief Minister, was thatthe CBI adamantly refused to hand over the case diaries even after the HighCourt, in January 2019, upheld the state government’s decision, and again, inFebruary 2020, the Supreme Court dismissed CBI’s appeal challenging the HCjudgement. “Why else would CBI have behaved in this manner had it not beenunder political pressure from the Akalis, who clearly did not want the probe tobe completed,” he asked, adding that SAD’s acts of omission and commissionwould now be exposed with the SIT no longer obstructed due to the absence ofthe case files.
The incidents of sacrilege occurred between June to October2015 following theft of the sacred Guru Granth Sahib from a Gurudwara in BurjJawaharsinghwala, Faridkot and discovery of torn pages from the Holy Book inBargari, Faridkot. They caused widespread discontent and outrage amongstmembers of the Sikh community.
These incidents led to large-scale protests and agitationsin October 2015. The retaliatory action taken by the police led to injuries anddeath of two persons. In 2015, the Akali Dal Government had transferredinvestigation of the sacrilege incident to the CBI. Retd. Justice Zora SinghCommission was appointed to inquire into the incidents of sacrilege and policeaction in the protests, and a report was submitted to the Government in 2016.
After the Congress Government came to power in 2017, findingthe report of Retd. Justice Zora Singh to be inconclusive, the Governmentappointed a fresh Commission of Inquiry, Retd. Justice Ranjit Singh Commission,who submitted a report in 2018.