PANEL’S PROBE INTO SACRILEGE CASES STILL ON; NO REPORT YET

CHANDIGARH: Chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday said justice Ranjit Singh Commission of Inquiry was yet to complete its probe into incidents of sacrilege and his government would not receive the report “piecemeal”.

Dismissing as baseless the allegations that justice Ranjit Singh (retd) had been denied appointment for submission of report, Amarinder said the final report was not ready. “While it had completed its probe into the Behbal Kalan and Bargari incidents, other cases of sacrilege of scriptures such as Srimad Bhagvad Gita and Quran are under investigation. Once the entire investigation is completed, the government will immediately take the report,” the CM said while interacting with reporters.

Referring to the issue of leakage of the special task force (SFT) report, the CM said an inquiry would be conducted and action taken accordingly. “Anyone found involved in drugs, irrespective of his/her political affiliation, will be punished,” he said.

The CM was also questioned about the demand by 40 MLAS of his party for action against the previous the SAD-BJP government, but he evaded the query saying “that was about a year ago”. Replying to a question on the skyrocketing prices of sand and gravel, he attributed it to his government’s clampdown on illegal mining, which had resulted in scarcity of construction material. He said a cabinet sub-committee had been mandated with the task of giving recommendations to tackle the problem.