SC allows appeal against HC order; new SIT to continue probe into Punjab firing

The Supreme Court has accepted an appeal by the Punjab government against an April 9 high court order which set aside findings of a special investigation team on police firing in Kotkapura. The firing was on those protesting against alleged incidents of desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib between June and October 2015, when the SAD-BJP combine led by Parkash Singh Badal was in office.

The HC had set aside findings of SIT headed by then IGP Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, saying it was biased and had ordered reconstitution of the probe team. It also quashed the charge sheet filed. Though the state has so far reconstituted the SIT six times, there has been no headway in the investigations. The newly constituted SIT is still probing the incidents which led to violence in parts of Punjab.

A bench of Justices Indira Bannerjee and JK Maheshwari said the issue was serious and it needed greater examination but refused to interfere with functioning of the new SIT. It issued notices to then Kotkapura SHO Gurdeep Singh, named as an accused in an FIR filed in the firing. He was represented by former Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, senior advocate RS Cheema and a team from Karanjawala and Co., led by senior partners Nandini Gore and Sandeep Kapur. The Punjab government was represented by senior advocate Salman Khurshid.


The then SHO has said that the allegations of police firing were an afterthought. The HC order said that the finding of the first SIT read like a hypothesis and not based on material or evidence on the incidents.