Statements of seven more recorded by SIT
FARIDKOT : The special investigation team (SIT) looking into the police firing at Kotkapura, three years ago, recorded statements of seven persons, including two brothers Rupinder Singh and Jaswinder Singh, of Panjgrain Khurd (Moga), at its camp office in Faridkot on Tuesday.
The brothers’ statements assume significance as they had been arrested in October 2015 in the Bargari sacrilege case and the then additional director general of police (ADGP) IPS Sahota had even claimed to have solved the case following this development.
The then deputy chief minister and SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal had also addressed a press conference regarding the arrests. Later, however, they were released under pressure from Sikh bodies.
“The government framed us wrongly. In 2015, the police arrested us on the intervening night of October 16 and 17 and produced us in court on October 20. We were released on November 2, under the pressure of Sikh bodies,” Rupinder said in his statement, adding that before their arrest in 2015, they (the brothers) were part of a committee that had been privately probing the theft of Guru Granth Sahib.
SIT member and inspector general Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh supervised the recording of the statements. It has also sought medical records of those injured in the firing from Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, Faridkot.
The special investigation team has to submit a status report of its investigation in the Punjab and Haryana high court on November 14.
“We are recording statements and the investigation process is underway. Our investigation is fair, impartial and transparent and will be concluded as early as possible,” the IG said.
Malkiat Singh, of Bhudan village, 37km from Sangrur, told the SIT members that his son, Gurpreet Singh 27, was among the protesters at Kotkapura on October 14, 2015.
He was injured that day and was admitted to the Faridkot Civil Hospital with head injuries. He had to be shifted to a Malerkotla hospital for treatment, which is still under way.