Even as the Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the 2015 sacrilege and related firing cases, is set to interrogate former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at his Chandigarh residence on Friday, the Akali patriarch on Thursday demanded the removal of Punjab Police IG Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh from the SIT for “demonstrating unprofessional conduct, disobedience of the law of the land, his malice and his political leanings”.
Kunwar Vijay had issued the summons to Badal, along with the SAD president Sukhbir Badal and Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar to appear before it at Amritsar circuit house on separate dates.
However, considering Badal’s old age, the SIT has issued fresh summons to the former Chief Minister giving him reprieve to give his “place of convenience” for interrogation, in case he did not wish to appear before it at Amritsar.
Even as the SAD maintained that the five-time Chief Minister would fully cooperate with the SIT, the party insisted on removing Kunwar Vijay from the SIT as member, besides initiating “appropriate disciplinary proceedings” against him under the relevant provisions of law and conduct rules for “his utterances and actions unbecoming of the high office he occupies”.
ADGP Prabodh Kumar underlined that section 160 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) mandates no male person above 65 years of age shall be required to attend at any place other than the place in which such male person resides.
“In compliance thereof, I shall keep myself available to you on the said date and time at one of my place of residence, mentioned in the notice dated November 12, 2018, that is MLAs Flat No. 35, Sector 4, Chandigarh,” he stated in the reply while reiterating his commitment “to co-operate with any independent, impartial and fair investigation as a person who has held law in the highest esteem all my life”.
As per the initial summon orders, issued by Kunwar Vijay on November 11, Badal, his son and the then Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal have been asked to appear before the SIT at Amritsar Circuit House on November 16, and November 19 respectively.
Besides the Badal father-son duo, similar summons were also issued to the Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar to appear before the SIT, set up by the Punjab Government under the chairmanship of ADGP Prabodh Kumar, on November 21.
Demanding Kunwar Vijay’s removal from SIT, the SAD has also written to the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh.
“The utterly unwarranted, unprofessional and biased utterances of Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh before the media have revealed a shocking degree of personal prejudice and malice in the officer, putting a serious question mark over his credibility, professional competence, impartiality and integrity,” said SAD leader Daljit Singh Cheema adding that this would completely defeat the purpose of a free and fair inquiry.
He said that in the interest of the people of Punjab, having faith in the fairness and credibility of the probe, it is absolutely imperative that Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh be removed from the SIT as member.
