SAD govt didn’t probe cases of sacrilege properly: Zora
CHANDIGARH: Justice Zora Singh (retired), who looked into the 2015 sacrilege incidents, alleged on Wednesday that the then Parkash Singh Badal-led Shiromani Akali Dal-bharatiya Janata Party (SAD-BJP) government did not ensure a “proper probe” into desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib in Faridkot.
Zora Singh, who recently joined the opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), alleged that the state police had carried out a “shoddy investigation” under political pressure. “If they had done a proper inquiry and followed the leads, things would have become clear then itself. My report had pointed to negligence at that time,” he said.
Zora Singh, a retired judge of the Punjab and Haryana high court, levelled these allegations while addressing a press conference in the AAP office here. He was accompanied by AAP MLAS Aman Arora and Kultar Singh Sandhwan and some other party leaders.
After a series of sacrilege incidents, a one-man inquiry commission under Zora Singh was set up by the SAD-BJP government in October 2015 to look into the cases and the police firing at Behbal Kalan village in which two persons were killed.
When the commission submitted its report in June 2016, the response from the Akali government was “tepid”. The next government headed by Capt Amarinder Singh rejected the findings and set up another commission under Justice Ranjit Singh (retired) for a fresh inquiry.
Before Wednesday’s press
THE RETIRED JUDGE, WHO RECENTLY JOINED THE AAP, SAYS POLICE CARRIED OUT A ‘SHODDY PROBE’ UNDER POLITICAL PRESSURE
conference, AAP leaders had tried to build it up as an event where the party will expose the role of Badals in desecration of Guru Granth Sahib and their “bonhomie” with chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh. However, the press conference did not live up to the hype, as the retired judge seemed reluctant to talk about his report and had to face a barrage of questions on his findings.
Zora Singh claimed that a bir (copy) of holy Guru Granth Sahib was stolen from a gurdwara at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village in Faridkot on June 1, 2015, and the police suspected the role of gurdwara’s granthi, but did not carry out his custodial interrogation.
“Some women had also seen two suspects in the gurdwara but there was no clarity over whether the suspects’ sketches were made or not. Were there some political persons or higherups who did not want a proper probe? Six suspects named by some Sikh organisations were also not interrogated,” he said.
He also accused two cops, who were part of the Special Investigation Team set up to probe the sacrilege incident, of not conducting "fair investigation".
‘GOVT PROTECTING THOSE BEHIND FIRING, SACRILEGE INCIDENTS’
The retired judge accused the present Congress government of protecting those behind the sacrilege incidents and the firing incident. “Like the erstwhile SAD-BJP government, the Amarinder government has failed to act fast even though it is about to complete two years in power,” he said. Zora Singh and other AAP leaders also demanded Amarinder’s resignation for not keeping his promise of taking swift action in the matter.
(With agency inputs)