Ruling elite in Punjab should know the consequences of derailing probe into cases related to sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib would be serious, both in the short and long term.

Ground Zero

Is Bargari sacrilege case being messed up under deeper conspiracy?

The developments related to the religio-politically sensitive Bargari sacrilege cases beginning with the closure report filed by the CBI towards the end of July and now the same agency seeking permission from the same court for withdrawing that plea to continue the probe points to a deeper and multi-layered conspiracy to put these multiple cases that have been dictating religio-political discourse in this border state since 2015 in a deep freezer. The ruling elite should learn lessons from Punjab history during the last about forty years.

Nothing can be put in deep freezer in this only state that is dominated by the Sikhs, the community that is a minority at the national level. Going by the history, it is the Sikh discourse that has been dictating the political course with Hindu political discourse being that of reaction.

Two headlines from the same person and on the same issue are very significant when juxtaposed:

“CAPT AMARINDER REJECTS `HURRIED’ CBI CLOSURE REPORT IN BARGARI CASE, DEMANDS REOPENING OF PROBE”

This is dated July 31, 2019.

Then here is the next:

POLITICALLY MOTIVATED, WILL FIGHT IT, SAYS CAPT AMARINDER ON CBI PLEA TO REOPEN PROBE IN BARGARI CASES

This is dated August 27.

Both are official press releases.

Who is responsible for this utter confusion at the highest level in the state administration?

Something is definitely wrong somewhere in the Chief Minister’s Office.

Two other interventions during this period are equally important.

DGP-cum-director, bureau of investigation, Prabodh Kumar, wrote a letter “requesting the CBI director to carry out the probe citing a few unanswered angles”.

Here is the officer who was perceived to be heading the five member special investigating team that was constituted by the Punjab government after “withdrawing” the sacrilege cases from the CBI on the basis of a resolution adopted in the Punjab Assembly after a 7-hour debate on Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report that was boycotted by the Akali Dal (Both Commission and debate).

How could the CBI file the closure report in the case that had been withdrawn by the state government from this agency?

Punjab’s advocate general said on August 1 hours after the Chief Minister slammed the closure report that  the CBI closure report  was bad in law, saying the national agency had no jurisdiction in the matter after the State Government withdrew the cases from it last year. He said  the CBI lost all authority and jurisdiction to continue with any investigation in the cases, much less to file a closure report, after the State Government issued a formal notification to withdraw the cases from the agency in September 2018, adding the correct legal course for the CBI would have been to inform the Court that it was no longer charged with the investigation. Who advised the Chief Minister to release earlier statement?

With whose permission Prabodh Kumar wrote to the CBO to continue with the probe, the letter that the agency has now quoted in the CBI special court in Mohali seeking permission to continue the probe and ignore the closure report.

It is pertinent to mention that the chargesheet that has been filed by the SIT that was constituted following withdrawal of the case from the CBI was disowned by Prabodh Kumar and three of his associates. The chargesheet has been filed by Inspector General of Police Kunwar Vijay Partap following clearance from Capt Amarinder Singh himself.

Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal is after only one person and he is Kunwar Vijay Partap and not any other member of the SIT. What is happening is clear. Sukhbir was the deputy chief minister having charge of Home in the previous Parkash Singh Badal government when then little known Bargari shook the state.

The issue, however, is as to who are the people around Capt Amarinder Singh who are trying to divert the probe.

It may be mentioned that Capt Amarinder Singh has repeatedly come under attack from within his own party of being soft towards Badals, despite the fact that he was the person who hit the House of Badals hard at the political level initially before the probe went cold.

The Congress had received such an unprecedented mandate mainly because of the strategic shift in the electoral matrix with a major section of the Sikhs determined to punish Badals ignoring the crime of Operation Bluestar committed by the Congress.

CBI has long lost its credibility, all the more so under the BJP regime. It is not without reason that Badals want the CBI to probe the cases.

And it is a section within the CMO that too seems to be acting in this very direction.

It is too well known in the administrative and police circles as to who is patronising whom in the CMO. The situation is turning all the more sensitive.

Here is the test for Capt Amarinder Singh to prove his credentials once again.