CHANDIGARH, Punjab—After joining the Aam Admi Party last month, the former High Court Judge Justice (Retired) Zora Singh today made some revelations about the sacrilege incidents occurred in Punjab during the tenure of the preceding Punjab government in 2015. It may be recalled here that Justice Zora Singh had submitted an inconclusive report on Kotkapura and Behbal Klan firing incidents in 2016 paving the way for shielding the guilty police cops.
Addressing the media at Chandigarh today, Justice Zora Singh held the Punjab police responsible for misleading the investigation of sacrilege cases by not interrogating the Granthi of Burj Jawahar Singh Wala’s Gurdwara Sahib. He said that the Police didn’t interrogate the Granthi due to which the investigation couldn’t be steered in a positive direction. “Some women had seen two suspects inside the Gurdwara Sahib who belonged to a neighboring village. A sketch was also made on basis of the eyewitness, however, when I inquired about the same, I came to know that sketches were neither issued in newspapers or on TV channels,” he said.
Notably, a holy corpus of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji was stolen from the Gurdwara Sahib of village Burj Jawahar Singh Wala on June 1, 2015. Later, some “Angs” of this holy corpus were scattered in front of Gurdwara Sahib of Bargari on October 12, 2015 following which a sharp outrage had prevailed among the Sikh community and the Sikhs started staging protest seeking justice. Instead of delivering justice, the Punjab police opened unprovoked firing on the protesting Sikhs at Kotkapura and Behbal Klan which left two dead and several others injured.
“The holy corpus of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji was stolen from the Gurdwara Sahib of village Burj Jawahar Singh Wala on June 1, 2015, and a case was registered on June 2. On September 25, a poster was put in the village claiming that the Holy Scripture was present in Bargari,” he said.
Pointing towards the former Punjab CM Parkash Badal and the former Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal, Justice Zora Singh said that the police did not investigate the incidents properly under pressure from higher-ups. “I gave the names of six alleged suspects to the police as they were given to me by the Sikh organizations during my inquiry. I asked police whether they were interrogated but I was told that no one was questioned. Some authority was perhaps stopping them,” he said.
He stated that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was also formed to investigate the incident but the officers constituting the team told him that they never interrogated anyone and acted against any suspect.
On being questioned about the involvement of senior police officials, he said if the senior police officers were not involved, then why police would refrain from taking any action and investigating the matter properly. “I did the inquiry and submitted my report to the then government. Why till date my report has not been made public?” he asked.
He demanded that the Congress government led by Captain Amarinder Singh should give answers that why no action is being taken against the culprits when two inquiry commissions (Justice Zora Singh and Justice Ranjit Singh) have submitted their reports.
