Kotkapura firing: Reschedule questioning, Badal urges probe team

Chandigarh, June 14

Former CM Parkash Singh Badal today told the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the October 2015 Kotkapura police firing case that due to ill health he cannot appear before it on June 16 — the day he has been summoned for questioning.

Requesting re-scheduling the questioning, he asked the SIT to question him at his official residence in the MLA colony here. The SIT had summoned him at a Rest House in Mohali. In a two-page letter to the SIT, which is headed by ADGP KK Yadav, Badal reiterated his “intent and commitment to fully cooperate with the law” and said that he had “complete faith in the judiciary”.

He has, however, asked the SIT to reschedule the date for his appearance for the questioning as he is not in good health and has been advised bed rest for 10 days.

“As soon as my health improves, I will be available to join the investigation as per law, at my current place of residence,” he said. Badal hoped that “this SIT, unlike the previous one, would respect the law of the land and conduct a fair investigation, withstanding political interference from the ruling dispensation” which, he said, had been brazenly subverting the law for petty political gains.

Badal was the CM in October 2015 when the firing took place in Kotkapura on a mob protesting the sacrilege incidents. The SIT led by ADGP KK Yadav wants to ascertain who gave the orders to open fire and if it was on a peaceful mob. — TNS