Up in arms against the Punjab and Haryana High Court verdict on the Special Investigation Report on the Kotkapura firing of 2005 following protests against desecration of Guru Granth Sahib, by the followers of pseudo-Baba Ram Rahi, a string of Panthic groups led by former Akal Takht Jathedar Bhai Ranjit Singh today burned the copies of the judgement terming it as political and flawed. A WSN Bureau report.

PANTHIC ACTIVISTS FROM ALL OVER PUNJAB, cutting across party lines gathered at the Main Chowk of Kotkapura and raised slogans amidst volunteers tearing and burning the copies of the judgement by Judge Justice Rajbir Sehrawat, which went beyond the brief under discussion and quashed the report of the Special Investigation Team under Punjab IG Police Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh.

Hitting the bulls’ eye, one of the placards read, “Justice does Injustice to Sikhs.” Not mincing words, another banner read, “No Justice for Sikhs in Hindutva India.”

The representatives of Panthic groups alleged that the Indian judiciary was biased and that the Punjab and Haryana High Court had crossed all limits with this regressive order. They further chastised the Amarinder-led government for having betrayed the Sikhs in sacrilege related cases and also the Maur bomb blast case.

Former leader of opposition in the Punjab Assembly, MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira, while speaking to the media said, “By burning the copies of the retrograde judgment, we have registered our protest and anger against the flawed judgement. This order is totally unacceptable to Sikh people.” The Sikhs are deeply upset over this miscarriage of justice,” he added.

Giving expression to the anger of the people against the insult to injury by the court, Khaira compared their action of burning the order to the burning of the three contentious farm laws in Punjab by the agitating farmers.

“Nobody should have any illusions. This is a democratic form of protest as this judgement has killed all hopes of justice to the aggrieved families in particular and the Sikh community in general.

Dal Khalsa spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh feared that the Badal Dal party leadership may have influenced the judgement and the judge may have delivered the same with an eye on a post-retirement political settlement.

“By burning the copies of the retrograde judgment, we have registered our protest and anger against the flawed judgement. This order is totally unacceptable to Sikh people.” The Sikhs are deeply upset over this miscarriage of justice,”

Sukhpal Singh Khaira, MLA Punjab Assembly, former Leader of Opposition

“Such gross denial of justice in sacrilege related cases is blasphemous for the Sikhs and will push the state back to the eighties of the last century and the events that happened in those times,” warned Kanwar Pal Singh.

Shiromani Akali Dal (Democratic) leader Parminder Singh Dhindsa said we don’t expect any justice from the present Punjab government as the HC verdict has reflected its utter failure to defend the SIT report in the court.

Religious and sensitive issues cannot be wished away. Captain Amarinder Singh will do well to act fast or as his Congress party legislators have warned him, “Act fast, or else it will be difficult to enter the villages of Punjab.”