Behbal Kalan firing: HC seeks status report from Punjab govt

CHANDIGARH: : The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday sought a status report from Punjab government on the FIR registered against five cops in connection with the Behbal Kalan firing in 2015.

The direction came from justice Rajan Gupta during the resumed hearing of a bunch of petitions filed by some police officers, challenging proceedings initiated by the state against them on the basis of a report by Ranjit Singh panel on sacrilege and police firing. The high court has stayed criminal proceedings.

Appearing for the state, former Union minister and Supreme Court lawyer Kapil Sibal said if some policemen are being investigated, the stay in favour of them should not have been granted as FIR was registered prior to the report.

The high court bench while deferring hearing till November 14 observed that it hoped state would act in a ‘responsible manner’. The officers against whom proceedings have been stayed are former Fazilka SP Bikramjit Singh, former Moga SSP Charanjit Singh Sharma and three other officers. All of them were named in the FIR registered over the firing

on Sikh protesters at Behbal Kalan in Faridkot in October 2015, in which two persons had died. The report and subsequent proceedings have been challenged on the grounds that panel summoned them as witnesses but later indicted them without any

hearing in violations of the provisions of the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952, thus jeopardising their reputation. They have also challenged the validity of the Ranjit commission. The government has now moved an application, seeking vacation of the stay.