SIT grills Saini for 2 hours

CHANDIGARH:THE Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the 2015 police firing grilled former Punjab director general of police (DGP) Sumedh Singh Saini for nearly two hours on Monday. Even as the SIT and Saini remained tight-lipped, the videographed statement saw Saini answering 20 questions, sources said.

The questions focused on whether the then Ludhiana police commissioner and IG, Paramraj Singh Umranangal, was ‘supervising’ the situation in Kotkapura and in Behbal Kalan, where two Sikh protesters were killed in police action on October 14, 2015.

Saini, sources in SIT said, was categorical in admitting that Umranangal was not supervising the situation at Kotkapura and many officers senior to the IG, including the then ADGP, law and order, Rohit Chaudhary were present in Kotkapura.

On Behbal Kalan, the EX-DGP, sources said, recorded in his statement that after nearly half an hour of Sikh protesters being removed from Kotkapura, he received information that a ‘clash’ had occurred between Sikh protesters and police at Behbal Kalan.

Later, it emerged that two persons were killed. Saini, said a SIT member, expressed complete ignorance about how a police party led by ex-moga SSP Charanjit Sharma, who was arrested by the SIT last month, entered into a scuffle with the protesters.

Saini, who has Z-plus security cover, appeared before the SIT in the officer’s mess of 82 Battalion of Punjab Armed Police (PAP) in a low-key manner.

He had initially returned the summons, issued after the arrest of IG Umranangal and SSP Sharma.

Earlier in the day, the SIT also recorded the statements of ADGP IPS Sahota; IG Amar