AKSHAY APPEARS BEFORE SIT, SAYS DIDN’T MEET DERA CHIEF
2015 POLICE FIRING Probe team questioned the actor over allegation that he facilitated a meeting between Ram Rahim and Sukhbir Badal in Mumbai in 2015
CHANDIGARH: Bollywood star Akshay Kumar on Wednesday appeared before the Punjab Police’s special investigation team (SIT) probing incidents of police firing on anti-sacrilege protesters in Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan in October 2015 after the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib at Bargari in Faridkot. Akshay, who recorded his statement at the Punjab Police headquarters here, denied having ever met Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.
CHANDIGARH: Bollywood star Akshay Kumar on Wednesday appeared before the Punjab Police’s special investigation team (SIT) probing incidents of police firing on anti-sacrilege protesters in Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan in October 2015 after the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib at Bargari in Faridkot.
Akshay, who recorded his statement at the Punjab Police headquarters here, denied having ever met Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.
The probe team questioned the actor as his name was mentioned in the report of the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission on the incidents of sacrilege in the state.
The report referred to a letter, dated October 9, 2017, which the panel received from former MLA Harbans Jalal, claiming that a meeting took place between Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and the then deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal at the actor’s flat in Mumbai in 2015 to facilitate the release of the Dera head’s movie ‘The Messenger of God-2 in Punjab.’
The meeting was allegedly held before the Dera chief was pardoned by the Akal Takht in a blasphemy case.
“The entire story seems to be a script of a bollywood movie. I am surprised that I have been dragged in this case unnecessarily. I have never met Ram Rahim,” an SIT member quoted Akshay as having told the probe team.
The actor was questioned in
› The entire story seems to be a script of a Bollywood movie. I am surprised that I have been dragged in this case. AKSHAY KUMAR, film actor
the officer’s lounge by the fivemember team, headed by ADGP Prabodh Kumar for about an hour. According to an SIT member, Akshay was asked five questions which pertained to his alleged relations with Ram Rahim and Sukhbir Badal.
The actor, who was scheduled to arrive at the police headquarters at 10.30 am, took the SIT and the media by surprise as he reached here at 9:25 am.
Notably, the SIT has already examined former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and former deputy CM Sukhbir, who was holding the home portfolio .