Punjab Govt forms SIT in Simarjeet Singh Bains case

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 15

Less than a fortnight after the Punjab and Haryana High Court asserted the state of Punjab was at liberty to appoint a “more competent investigating officer” if the probe in the rape case against MLA Simarjeet Singh Bains was not proceeding further in the right earnest, the state has constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT). The High Court has also been assured about the completion of probe within four weeks.

As the matter came up for resumed hearing before the Bench of Justice Rajan Gupta and Justice Karamjit Singh, Punjab Additional Advocate-General SPS Tinna placed before the court an affidavit by Inspector-General of Police, Bureau of Investigation, Gursharan Singh Sandhu.

He submitted that the state, pursuant to order dated September 3, had decided to have a more competent investigating agency. As a result, it had constituted a SIT headed by ADCP (Investigation) Rupinder Kaur Bhatti.

Responding to the submissions, the “victim’s” counsel CM Munjal alleged that the accused was intimidating the witnesses by getting cases registered against them outside Punjab on one allegation or the other. “On instructions from Rupinder Kaur Bhatti, AAG Tinna submits that this matter shall also be looked into,” the Bench added.

Alleging police inaction in the case, the “victim” had earlier moved the High Court. She was seeking directions to be made a party in the ongoing suo motu case on “monitoring the progress of matters pending against the MP/MLAs”.

Appearing before the Bench, Munjal had submitted that complete list of cases pending against sitting MLA from the Atam Nagar Assembly constituency, Simarjeet Singh Bains, had not been furnished by the state. This apart, he submitted that investigation had hardly made progress in any of the cases pending against him.

To be headed by ADCP (Investigation)

As the matter came up for resumed hearing before the Bench of Justice Rajan Gupta and Justice Karamjit Singh, Punjab Additional Advocate-General SPS Tinna submitted the state, pursuant to order dated September 3, had decided to have a more competent investigating agency. As a result, it had constituted an SIT headed by ADCP (Investigation) Rupinder Kaur Bhatti.