Kotkapura firing: No one identified persons who attacked police, SIT tells court

Faridkot : The special investigation team (SIT) probing the 2015 Kotkapura firing case has said that no one, including the injured cops, disclosed the identity of assailants who attacked them on October 14, 2015.

The SIT revealed this in a local court after former senior superintendent of police (SSP) Charanjit Singh Sharma, one of the prime accused in the Kotkapura police firing case, sought status of the investigation in the FIR registered for allegedly attacking cops. The SIT said the probe into two FIRs --- one against protesters and another against cops --- was underway.

On October 14, 2015, police opened fire at people protesting at Kotkapura against the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib. Over 30 police personnel were also injured and public property was damaged during the protest.

After the firing incident, the police registered an FIR against 15 Sikh preachers and unidentified persons at the Kotkapura city police station for allegedly instigating the protesters to attack the police. The SIT has, however, given a clean chit to Sikh preachers and named four cops as accused in this case.

Another FIR was registered on August 7, 2018, against unidentified cops. The FIR was registered on the recommendation of the Justice Ranjit Singh (retd) commission report that probed the incident. The SIT has named seven persons, including then deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and five cops as accused. The SIT also filed chargesheets against the accused.

In the reply to Sharma’s application, the SIT submitted that during the course of investigation, the former SSP was examined on two occasions and was shown CCTV footages and video clips of the day of incident, wherein assailants were seen beating up and assaulting the police personnel.

“Further, he was asked specifically regarding the identification of assailants who had caused injuries to the police personnel. However, the applicant did not disclose any details pertaining to identity of the assailants. Moreover, other accused were examined by the SIT on the same lines but no relevant information was disclosed by any of the accused,” the SIT said.

“To identify assistants, the statements of injured cops were recorded and were shown CCTV footage of the day of the incident. But none of the injured police personnel could reveal any information that could lead to the identification of the attackers,” SIT added.

The probe team said to identify assailants, public notices and advertisements along with 10 pictures of suspects captured from CCTV footages and video clips of the day of the incident were given in the newspapers. However, no one has identified any of them so far, the SIT said.