Raising concerns about how ‘sacrilege’ cases were being tracked, former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and ruling Aam Aadmi Party lawmaker Kunwar Vijay Pratap urged the Chief Minister of Punjab, Bhagwant Mann, to strongly defend the petitions in the cases before the High Court and continue the ongoing trial in Faridkot Sessions Court.
In a letter to the CM, a copy of which has fallen into the public domain, the MP for Amritsar North said he had learned that the cases had not been prosecuted properly and fairly.
“At Faridkot Sessions Court, these cases were dropped on the prosecution side. You know very well that I resigned from the service of the IPS because of the indifferent attitude of the government then in power and the connection of the ruling class with the high-level defendants,” the letter reads.
The lawmaker wrote that he had learned that the defendants were working to have the investigation into Behbal Kalan and the ongoing trial in Faridkot Sessions Court dismissed and acquitted. He said the Special Investigation Teams (SITs) set up by the government after his resignation had done nothing to bring the cases to their logical conclusion.
The 1998 IPS officer was leading the SIT in the sacrilege cases and the High Court of Punjab and Haryana quashed the investigation which led to his resignation from the services. He then joined the AAP and won from Amritsar North.
Interestingly, former MP Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu, wife of deposed Congress State Unit leader Navjot Singh Sidhu had protested the dismissal of the former IPS officer a few days ago of the state cabinet.
Tagging the office of Punjab CM and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal – who is also in charge of the AAP – on Twitter, she posted her recommendation to hand over the national portfolio to Kunwar, saying, “Crime in Punjab exceeds all boundaries. I refuse to understand why such a competent and superior officer of the IPS, Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, is not appointed Home Minister.
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