Captain opposes CBI plea for keeping Bargari closure report in abeyance
Instead of sharing the closure report copy, the CBI was resorting to cheap tactics by seeking to reopen investigations in Bargari cases, he said.
Terming the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) move as politically motivated and an attempt to scuttle the state government’s efforts to take the sacrilege cases to their logical conclusion, chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday asked advocate general Atul Nanda to legally oppose the CBI plea for keeping its Bargari closure report in abeyance.
The CM asked Nanda to prepare a strong case against the CBI plea for so-called further investigation in the cases, in which the agency had earlier filed a closure report without a proper probe or grounds. “The CBI had reduced the entire matter of the Bargari sacrilege cases to a charade. We will not let the CBI get away with such a blatantly political move,” he said in a statement.
The CBI plea has come less than a week after the state government filed a revision petition in the CBI special court at Mohali challenging its July 23 orders dismissing the state’s request for a copy of the closure report filed by the agency.
Amarinder said instead of sharing the closure report copy, the CBI was resorting to cheap tactics by seeking to reopen investigations in the Bargari cases, which it had earlier claimed to merit no further probe. “Why are they not sharing the copy of the closure report? What are they trying to hide?” he asked, declaring that the entire affair smacked of a clear attempt to bury the investigation for good.
He accused the CBI of acting on the diktats of its political masters in Delhi, questioning the sudden need on the part of the agency for further probe. “They had no explanation earlier for filing the closure report and no justification now for seeking to keep it in abeyance,” he said, adding that the CBI plea was clearly aimed at preventing the state government from getting the cases investigated by the SIT.
“The court should not allow the CBI plea and should uphold in spirit the unanimous resolution of the state assembly to withdraw the cases from the national agency, said the CM.
He said the CBI court should also take into account the judgment of the Punjab and Haryana high court stating that the investigation agency had made no progress in its probe for three years before filing its closure report.
