2015 Kotkapura Firing Case: Court Dismisses Sukhbir Singh’s Anticipatory Bail, But Grants Relief to Father

A court in Punjab’s Faridkot on Thursday dismissed the former Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal’s anticipatory bail plea in the 2015 Kotkapura police firing incident, but granted relief to his father, former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

Both Akali leaders moved the Faridkot court for anticipatory bail last week through counsel Arshdeep Singh Cheema. The court of additional district and sessions judge, Faridkot, reserved its order after hearing arguments on March 14.

The Punjab Police Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is investigating the police firing case, filed a charge sheet in a Faridkot court last month, naming then-Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, then-Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, ex-DGP Sumedh Saini, and others.

Sukhbir Badal and Sumedh Saini were implicated as the “masterminds of a plan to employ illegal disproportionate force to conceal the state’s inactivity” in three sacrilege incidents in Faridkot. The then chief minister Badal was blamed for “facilitating the implementation of the conspiracy” in the 7,000-page charge sheet.

In 2015, incidents included the theft of a ‘bir’ (copy) of the Guru Granth Sahib, the display of handwritten sacrilegious posters, and the discovery of shredded pages of the holy book at Bargari in Faridkot.

These instances sparked protests, and two people, Gurjeet Singh and Kishan Bhagwan Singh, were killed in Behbal Kalan and several others were injured in police fire in Kotkapura, Faridkot.