Ex-moga SSP held, sent to 8-day police remand
FARIDKOT : The special investigation team (SIT) of Punjab Police on Sunday arrested former Moga SSP Charanjit Singh Sharma in a case related to the killing of two youths in alleged police firing on anti-sacrilege protesters in 2015 in Faridkot’s Behbal Kalan village.
“Sharma was arrested from his residence in Hoshiarpur’s Civil Lines in the early hours,” said IG Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, who is a member of the SIT headed by additional director general of police (ADGP) Prabodh Kumar.
Later, he was produced in a Faridkot court that sent him to eight-day police remand.
The IG said they had specific inputs that the accused was trying to flee to some undisclosed location. “Sharma had been asked to appear before the SIT on January 29. But when we got the input that he was trying to flee to some unknown location, we carried out his arrest today (Sunday),” he added. Sources said a team led by three DSPS — Vibhor Kumar, Bikram Brar and Gurjot Singh — arrested Sharma in an operation which began on Saturday night. The former SSP tried to escape by scaling a wall but was nabbed, they added.
Earlier, Sharma was brought to special operation centre at Amritsar for interrogation. “Sharma was mainly questioned about the Behbal Kalan firing episode. His medical examination was also conducted,” said the IG.
Sharma was leading a police party that allegedly opened fire at the anti-sacrilege protesters at Behbal Kalan on October 14, 2015. His arrest, first in the case after SIT was formed last year, comes two days after the Punjab and Haryana high court dismissed the petitions seeking a CBI probe into the desecration of religious texts and police firing incidents in the state in 2015 and challenging the findings of the Ranjit Singh Commission into the incidents.
A bunch of petitions challenging the findings of the Ranjit Singh commission had been filed by Sharma (now retired) and four other cops.
The petitioners had approached the court questioning the action against them on the basis of the Justice Ranjit Singh commission which probed the Behbal Kalan police firing and sacrilege incidents in the state in 2015.
The court had dismissed their plea seeking a CBI probe into the four FIRS registered in connection with the sacrilege incidents.
The Punjab government had last year added the names of Sharma, Bikramjit Singh (now assistant commandant, 4th Commando Battalion, Mohali), along with inspector Pardip Singh and sub- inspector Amarjit Singh in an FIR registered earlier at Bajakhana police station in Faridkot under IPC sections for murder and attempt to murder.
EX-DGP SAINI TO BE SUMMONED SOON
It is learnt that former director general of police Sumedh Singh Saini is likely to be summoned soon for questioning. Saini was the state police chief when the firing incident took place. The SIT already recorded statements of then ADGP (law and order) Rohit Chaudhary, then Bathinda IG Jatinder Jain (now ADGP), then Ludhiana police commissioner Paramraj Singh Umranangal and other senior cops who were present in Faridkot district at that time.