The Bargari Insaf Morcha will again be at the doors of the ECI on 20 April as the SIT headed by ADGP Prabodh Kumar, without its investigator IG Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh readies to file a lame-duck charge sheet in the October 2015 Behbal Kalan firing incident.

The Election Commission, even after receiving a request from the Punjab government, complaints from all major political parties of Punjab –the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and Taksali Akali Dal, representations from Panthic parties –Dal Khalsa,  Bargari Insaaf Morcha, United Akali Dal, the Sadhbhavana Dal and a fervent appeal from the victim families to reinstate IG Kunwar Partap Singh back to SIT to ensure that there is no obstruction of justice and the guilty police officers –at all levels in the hierarchy are brought to book, has not acted so far.

With the chief investigator Inspector General Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh sidelined by the ECI on a frivolous complaint of the Shiromani Akali Dal, the Special Investigation Team is working overtime to file a charge sheet –shall we say Dis-Charge sheet in the October 2015 Behbal Kalan police firing in which two Sikhs were killed.

Under the pretext of ensuring that one of the detained senior police person is kept behind the bars, as the mandatory 90 days period ends of 27 April, perhaps with the complicity of the legal team of the Punjab government, a behind the scenes charade is under way to take electoral advantage and befool the victim families and the people of Punjab that justice would soon be done. In the absence of IG Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh, planted stories are doing the rounds of the media, wherein evidence collected is being challenged and the accused are being touted as witnesses.

The victim families and Panthic bodies in their communiqué had warned the ECI that the Malwa region would witness unrest if by removing IG Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh, the ECI gives this impression that it was against the trial of those responsible for the Behbal Kalan killings and also the Sauda Dera followers who had flagrantly carried out acts of sacrilege against Guru Granth Sahib.  Now the Bargari Insaaf Morcha has announced another protest rally in Chandigarh on 20 April targeting the Election Commission of India.

The Election Commission of India, despite all the details that various bodies have presented to it, has failed to fathom the point that it is very rare that Panthic parties come in support of a police officer and that it is so in this case because it relates to the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib and Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh has shown grit in arresting two senior-most police personnel- IG Paramraj Singh Umranangal and SSP Charanjit Sharma, who were directly responsible for the killings.

The Election Commission of India will lose face and faith in Punjab should the investigation be derailed and a “Dis-Charge sheet” instead of a Charge sheet is filed by the Special Investigation Team in this highly sensitive case.

Likewise, should the Punjab government go soft on the issue, after having raised expectations and hopes of justice, it would be confirming the worst fears of the people, especially the devout, forcing them to say that the Congress too has gone the Akali way.

Should this happen, it would be a sad day for Punjab.