Rajwinder Singh Bains not to be special prosecutor in sacrilege cases, Punjab Government tells HC

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 29

The Punjab Government submitted an undertaking before the Punjab and Haryana High Court today that senior advocate Rajwinder Singh Bains will not appear as a special prosecutor before the trial court in connection with several FIRs lodged in the firing incident linked to sacrilege cases.

The undertaking, given before Justice Raj Mohan Singh, came in response to a petition filed by Amarjit Singh Kullar, an accused in the case. Kullar, a former Station House Officer of the Bajakhana police station, had contended in his petition that Bains had earlier appeared as a counsel for the complainant and the kin of the firing victim in two separate cases filed before the High Court.

It was averred before the High Court that as per law, the public prosecutor was required to be independent and impartial, but advocate Bains’ prior engagements as counsel for the complainant and the victim apparently led to a

conflict of interest.

The counsel for petitioner Sangram Singh Saron further argued the appointment of Bains as a special prosecutor violated Section 24 of the Criminal Procedure Code as the fact of his representing the complainant and the kin of the victim as a counsel was not considered by the Punjab Government while appointing him as

the special prosecutor.

Saron added there had been no consultations between the state government and the High Court on the administrative side of Bains’ appointment, which was a mandatory process.

The Punjab Government had appointed senior advocate Bains on October 1 as the special public prosecutor in four FIRs pertaining to Punjab’s sacrilege cases, representing the state in two FIRs registered at

Kotkapura and two FIRs registered at the Bajakhana police station in Behbal Kalan.