Lawyer who helped cops fabricate evidence against protesters held
FARIDKOT : The special investigation team (SIT) probing the 2015 police firings on people protesting the Bargari sacrilege in Faridkot have arrested the advocate who allegedly aided in making fabricated bullet marks on the escort vehicle of Charanjit Singh Sharma, former Moga senior superintendent of police and an accused in the Behbal Kalan case.
It is the first arrest made since inspector general of police Paramraj Singh Umranangal was held in the Kotkapura firing case on Feb 19, 2020, and second in the Behbal Kalan firing after the SIT held Sharma in January last year.
IGP Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, who is a member of the SIT and recently took charge of the
Behbal Kalan inquiry in addition to the Kotkapura case that he probed, said Sohali Singh Brar, a Faridkot-based lawyer, was arrested on Tuesday and will be produced in court on Wednesday.
Two youths had died in police firing at Behbal Kalan on October 14, 2015, while protesting against the desecration of Guru Granth Sahib at Bargari on October 12. Police had also opened fire on protesters at Kotkapura, leaving many injured, the same day.
The SIT in its probe found that Charanjit Sharma conspired with three other police officers — Fazilka superintendent of police Bikramjit Singh, inspector Pardip Singh and SI Amarjit Singh Kular — to cover up facts related to the Behbal Kalan firing.
SIT has claimed that to fabricate false evidence against the protesters, Charanjit’s escort vehicle was taken to the advocate’s house, where Bikramjit and a car dealer fired on it to make bullet marks. The same day, Kular, who was the Bajakhana SHO, recorded the statements of Sharma, Bikramjit and Pardip Singh among others, in which they claimed that police fired in self-defence after protestors attacked them. According to the SIT, Sharma’s driver Gurnam Singh, who was behind the wheel in the escort vehicle, has confessed that protesters had fired no shot on the vehicle.