A Faridkot district court, pronouncing order on Thursday, granted bail to the five-time former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in the Kotkapura police firing case, while rejecting the same for his son and SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal.
 
The Court of Rajiv Kalra, Additional Session Judge in Faridkot, also directed the former Chief Minister to surrender before the Illaqa Magistrate within 15 days from March 16. “If arrested, he will be released on bail upon furnishing a personal bond of Rs five lakh with one surety. However, he must comply with the conditions envisaged under Sections 438(2) and 437(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure,” read the order.
 
The court ordered that Parkash Singh Badal shall attend in accordance with the condition of the bond. “He will not commit an offence similar to the offence of which he is accused. He shall not directly or indirectly make any inducement, threat, or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case so as to dissuade them from disclosing such facts to the court or to any police officer, and Parkash Singh Badal shall not leave India without the previous permission of the Court,” it added.
 
The court observed that Parkash Singh Badal was considered for anticipatory bail “in the light of his advanced age”. An Akali veteran, Badal has been five-time Chief Minister of Punjab — from 1970 to 1971, from 1977 to 1980, from 1997 to 2002, and from 2007 to 2017.
 
Having regard to the age and medical condition of Parkash Singh Badal, there is no legal impediment in extending the benefit of bail to him, the court said.
 
The order further stated, “The political rhetoric of the present Chief Minister or his cabinet colleagues spread over Twitter handles does not give credibility of the allegations of hobnobbing of the present SIT with political dispensation or entails to draw an inference that the SIT’s conclusion were overshadowed or influenced by the present political dispensation.”
 
“In fact, the SIT’s conclusion appears to be based upon various factors, viz eyewitness account, CCTV footage and communication among State machinery apart from scientific investigation, etcetera, and is not liable to be discarded outrightly in the present forum…There is also no dispute to the fact that the present SIT could not complete the investigation within a period of six months but it is not a valid ground to extend the benefit of bail to the applicants,” it stated, adding that the newly-constituted SIT was directed to conclude the investigation as expeditiously as possible, preferably within a period of six months from the date of constitution of SIT as per the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
 
Appreciating the SIT’s work, the court stated, “The final charge sheets in multiple volumes submitted by the SIT in both cases speak of the efforts made by the SIT in conclusion of the investigation. The applicants pleaded lack of sanction under Section 132 CrPC, but this is not the appropriate stage to consider this aspect.”
 
Following the district court’s order, Sukhbir is likely to approach the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
 
The Badal father-son duo had filed anticipatory bail applications on March 9 through their counsel in the Kotkapura firing case, in which a chargesheet was submitted by the ADGP LK Yadav-led SIT in the same court on February 24.
 
On March 6, Parkash Singh Badal, Sukhbir Badal, former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini, and five other police officers — former Faridkot SSP Sukhmander Singh Mann, former DIG Amar Singh Chahal, former IG Paramraj Umranangal, former Moga SSP Charanjit Singh Sharma, and former SHO Kotkapura Gurdeep Singh Randhawa — were issued notices in the Kotkapura police firing case with the directions to remain present before the court on March 23.
 
As per the chargesheet, SAD president and the then Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and the then state police chief Sumedh Singh Saini were named as “masterminds of conspiracy (hatched) for illegal and excess use of force to conceal inaction of state on a series of three sacrilege incidents”.
 
The 7,000-page chargesheet, filed in 17 parts, also blamed the then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal “as a facilitator”, while Umranangal, Chahal, Sukhmander Mann, and Charanjit Singh, have been accused of “executing the conspiracy”, besides indicting Randhawa for distortion and concealment of facts.