'Blemished Investigation With Political Maneuvering': Punjab & Haryana High Orders Re-Investigation In Kotkapura Firing Case

Tearing into the "blemished" and "impartial" investigation conducted by former IGP of Punjab Police, Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has given a clean chit to former CM Parkash Singh Badal in the Kotkapura Firing Case. A Single Bench of Justice Rajbir Sehrawat noted that the Police firing was neither unprovoked nor intended against peaceful protestors, as otherwise claimed by Singh in his challan report. It further noted that the firing order was passed by the magistrate present on the spot, only after assessing the situation that had arisen on the spot. It noted that the protestors chased and attacked the police, including with the swords and it is thereafter that the Magistrate granted permission to use tear gas in the first instance, lathi charge thereafter, and the gun firing at the third stage. "The firing is stated to have taken place at the third stage, after the third order passed by the civil authorities and not in the first instance. However, before that; in the above description itself; the protestors are recorded to have chased and attacked the police, including with the swords. Therefore the conclusion that the protestors were sitting peacefully when the police started firing; and also the conclusion that firing by the police was unprovoked; is against the record even on this count," the Single Judge found. Background The firing incident dates back to the year 2015 during protests against alleged sacrilege qua Guru Granth Sahib, the Holy Book of Sikhs. During the process of maintaining the law and order situation, the police are stated to have fired upon the protestors at Kotkapura, where some police persons were seriously injured, one protestor allegedly received grievous gunshot injury and some other persons allegedly received minor injuries. The investigation was handed over to a SIT headed by Singh, which submitted in its final report against some police official, along with allegations of conspiracy with higher police officials and the higher political functionaries. Singh alleged that there was a conspiracy between the then CM Badal, the then Deputy Chief Minister, the then senior police officers and the Petitioner-accused, on the basis of the call record showing the Chief Minister talking to the DGP and the District Administration, as well as, to his political representative in the area. Findings In its order, the Single Judge observed that mere factum of a Chief Minister talking to the District Administration or to the DGP of the State in the times of a situation where the law and order is disturbed, in itself, would not be sufficient to infer his conspiracy to kill or injure anybody through firing by the police upon the protestors, unless there is some other material collected by the investigating officer to establish prior meeting of minds for conspiracy. "If mere talking of the Chief Minister, or for that matter by a minister with his DGP or the District Administration, is taken as a criminal conspiracy then any Chief Minister can be held criminally liable every day for any wrong-doing resulting from wrong functioning of district officials," Justice Sehrawat remarked. The Judge further said, the fact that the then Chief Minister was in contact with the district officials, rather, shows that he was alive to the situation and to his responsibility as a Chief Minister; even in the odd hours. "Had the then Chief Minister not been in contact with the District Administration and his DGP in such a critical situation, then he would have run the risk of being branded as another Nero who played fiddle when the Rome was burning," the Judge said. Blemished Investigation The Single Bench has ruled that Singh had gone to the extent of manufacturing the statements of witnesses to suit his designs, by recording differing statements of same witnesses in these two FIRs; with convenient omissions in their statements recorded under section 161 CrPC, qua the violence by the protestors. This, the Court noted, had not happened qua one or two stray witnesses. Rather several police officials had changed their statements to further the allegations made in the impugned FIR by going totally contrary to the record and in contravention of their earlier statements. "The investigation carried out by the Respondent No.3 [Singh] is not free from blemish. His personal malice and malafide functioning by totally usurping the powers of SIT constituted in the first instance, has been duly demonstrated on record," the Bench noted. The Judge was of the opinion that Singh misused his official position to further his designs and indulged in theatrics and political maneuvering. The order stated, "Respondent No. 3 has been manipulating the statements as it suits him in a particular case despite the witnesses being the same and the incident being the same… Hence, the integrity of...

'Blemished Investigation With Political Maneuvering': Punjab & Haryana High Orders Re-Investigation In Kotkapura Firing Case

Akshita Saxena

Tags