SIT clueless about 3 dera followers’ whereabouts
Punjab Police seek more time from high court to file status report
2017 MAUR BLAST
NEARLY SIX YEARS ON
Surender Sharma and Ravinder Vasudeva fix batteries used in the bomb.
The case was taken up by a Punjab and Haryana high court bench of chief justice RS Jha and justice Arun Palli on Tuesday and in view of state’s request, the hearing was deferred. The high court in March this year had asked the state to file a fresh status report in the case, but the hearing could not take place on two occasions on April 5 and July 20.
Initially, the plea was filed in May 2018, seeking probe by an independent agency, but it was disposed of by high court in September after the court expressed satisfaction with the probe. In December 2018, the petitioner, Gurjeet Singh Patran, a Patiala resident, again approached court, demanding its revival. This plea was too disposed of, giving two weeks time to the police to arrest the accused. Patran then filed a contempt petition, which paved the way for the revival of the 2018 plea, which is being heard now.
Patran alleged that the probe has slowed down ever since the names of some Dera Sacha Sauda followers have cropped up in the case.
He also claimed that the dera head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has neither been questioned nor arrested. According to a status report submitted in the high court in April 2021, passports of Gurtej and Amrik have been revoked and revocation proceedings of the passport of Avtar have also been initiated.
Petitions revived thrice, two SITS changed
The petition to probe the case by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) or Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was first filed by the petitioner on May 28, 2018, and the court asked the then SIT to probe the case expeditiously. The high court that time had given liberty to the petitioner to revive the petition if no tangible progress is made in the case.
The petitioner again approached the high court on December 25, 2018, for the revival of petition. The court replaced the SIT and formed a new probe team headed by DIG Khatra.
On October 2019, the high court again changed the SIT on Patran’s plea and handed the probe to another SIT led by then special DGP, law and order, with directions to complete the probe in three months.
On September 17, 2020, the SIT informed the bench that a challan has been filed in a Talwandi Sabo court but no arrest has been made. The high court again disposed of the review petition with the direction to nab the accused within a week. On February 22, 2022, the court allowed revival of the petition and on March 9, the court asked the SIT to file a status report in the case.