Chandigarh: Former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and former Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal have filed anticipatory bail pleas in the Faridkot district court on Thursday. The petition will be heard on March 14 in the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Rajiv Kalra.
The SIT had filed a charge sheet in the Kotkapura firing case on February 24. On March 6, the JMIC court had issued notices to the two accused, including Badal, and ordered them to appear on March 23.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Punjab Police probing the Kotkapura firing case had filed a 7,000-page charge sheet in a local court. Apart from the then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, the then DGP Sumedh Singh Saini and Kotkapura City Station House Officer (SHO), six police officers have also been named as accused by the SIT.
All of them have been charged under other serious sections including intent-to-murder, criminal conspiracy and tampering of facts.
According to the charge sheet, the then DGP Saini and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal have been named as the main conspirators in the Kotkapura firing incident, while Parkash Badal has been accused of helping in executing the conspiracy. The then IG Umranangal, DIG Ferozepur Amar Singh Chahal and SSP Moga Charanjit Singh Sharma are accused of executing the conspiracy.
Similarly, the then Faridkot SSP Sukhmandar Singh Mann and Kotkapura SHO Gurdeep Singh have been accused of executing the conspiracy, concealing facts and distorting facts. The SIT has just filed a charge sheet in the 2018 FIR, while the next hearing in the FIR case lodged against the protesters is on March 6.
On October 14, 2015, after the desecration of the holy form of Sri Guru Granth Sahib at Bargari in Faridkot, the protests in Kotkapura and Bahibal Kalan were ended by the police on October 14. Two Sikh youths were killed in the Bahibal Kalan firing incident, while around 100 protesters were injured in the Kotkapura firing incident. In 2018, the then CM Badal and Sukhbir Badal were chargesheeted.