Punjab Police summons SAD chief and former Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal in Kotkapura firing incident

The Special Investigating Team (SIT) of the Punjab Police has summoned former state Deputy Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal for questioning in the sensational Kotkapura firing incident.

The SIT, probing the incident of police firing on people who were protesting against an incident of sacrilege in Kotkapura in 2015 which left two people dead, has asked Badal – then also holding the portfolio of Home Minister – to appear with relevant records before it at the Punjab Police Officers’ Institute, Sector 32, Chandigarh, at 10.30 AM on August 30.

This is the first time during the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) regime in Punjab that Badal will be questioned in connection with the Kotkapura firing incident.

Earlier, two different SITs questioned Sukhbir thrice in this case. The SIT led by Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) LK Yadav had questioned Sukhbir in June 2021. Another SIT, headed by former IGP Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, who is now an AAP MLA, had questioned him in November 2018.

The SIT led by Yadav had last month also questioned former Director General of Police (DGP), Punjab Sumedh Singh Saini and filed a status report in Faridkot court.

The Akali leaders had accused the then Congress government in Punjab of ‘political vendetta’ and ‘taking political mileage’ from the Kotkapura firing case, when a SIT last year questioned former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Badal in the case.