HC transfers Behbal Kalan firing case from Faridkot to Chandigarh
The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday transferred the trial in the 2015 Behbal Kalan firing case from Faridkot to Chandigarh
Chandigarh :The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday transferred the trial in the 2015 Behbal Kalan firing case from Faridkot to Chandigarh.
The high court acted on the plea of one of the accused, Charanjit Sharma, then Moga senior superintendent of police (SSP), who had in 2019 sought the transfer of the case on security grounds. Ever since the petitioner was nominated as accused, he and his family members have been receiving threats to their lives from fundamentalist organisation, he had claimed.
The case was registered on October 21, 2015, a week after two protesters were killed allegedly in police firing at Behbal Kalan in the aftermath of the sacrilege incidents.
A firing incident was reported at Kotkapura also where protesters suffered injuries.
The incidents followed three incidents of sacrilege with the first reported on June 1, 2015, when a “bir” of Guru Granth Sahib was stolen from a gurdwara at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village in Faridkot. Later, derogatory posters were put up at Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala on September 24, 2015, night and torn pages of a “bir” were found scattered near Bargari gurdwara on October 12, 2015.
Besides Sharma, former Punjab Police chief Sumedh Singh Saini and then inspector general of police Paramraj Singh Umranangal are among the accused in the case. Saini and Umranangal were chargesheeted by the SIT on January 15, 2021.
The court took note of police communications from time to time issued in respect of increased vigil and extra deployment of police force at court premises whenever the hearing of this case is to take place.
The court also took note of the murder of Pardeep Kataria, a Dera Sacha Sauda follower, in November 2022. He was an accused in sacrilege-related cases and was murdered in broad daylight despite being provided government security.
Taking note of these incidents, the court observed that a case for transfer of trial is made out as instances given and documents quoted are “sufficient enough to indicate that if trial is permitted to continue at Faridkot that may create communally surcharged atmosphere for holding fair and impartial trial”.
“The safety of an accused or a complainant is an essential condition for participation in a trial and where that is put in peril by commotion, tumult or threat on account of pathological conditions prevalent in a particular venue, the request for a transfer may not be dismissed summarily. It causes disquiet and concern to a court of justice if a person seeking justice is unable to appear, present one’s case, bring one’s witnesses or adduce evidence,” the bench observed, allowing the plea for transfer of case to Chandigarh.
The court also took note of the February 2023 Supreme Court order, whereby the trial in three interlinked cases of the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib at Bargari in 2015 was transferred from Faridkot to Chandigarh by the Supreme Court. In these cases, the Punjab Police special investigation team (SIT) named Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim as the “main conspirator”. The trial is underway before a court in Chandigarh.
