Seven days af­ter mak­ing a per­sonal rep­re­sen­ta­tion to the CEO Pun­jab, Sukhraj Singh, son of mar­tyr Kr­is­han Bhag­wan Singh and Sadhu Singh fa­ther of mar­tyr Gur­jeet Singh ad­dressed me­dia in Bhatinda and re­leased a fresh let­ter sent by the Be­hbal Kalan vic­tim fam­i­lies to the CEC seek­ing re­in­state­ment of IG Kun­war Vi­jay Par­tap Singh to the SIT to con­tinue in­com­plete in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

Led by the vic­tim fam­i­lies, the Pun­jab gov­ern­ment and many po­lit­i­cal and Pan­thic or­gan­i­sa­tions have com­plained to the ECI to look into the mat­ter of trans­fer­ring the key in­ves­ti­ga­tor from the SIT, but so far the ECI has not acted on the com­plaints.

Speak­ing to the World Sikh News, Sukhraj Singh said, “The Elec­tion Com­mis­sion is test­ing our pa­tience. We will do what­ever the fam­i­lies can do and op­pose this wrong de­ci­sion. It is dis­gust­ing that the Elec­tion Com­mis­sion has not re­sponded in any man­ner to our com­plaint and rep­re­sen­ta­tion sub­mit­ted on 11 April 2019.”

Bathinda based ad­vo­cate Harpal Singh Khara ad­dress­ing the me­dia with the vic­tim fam­i­lies said, “In the ab­sence of Kun­war Vi­jay Par­tap Singh, the SIT is likely to pre­sent a ‘ma­nip­u­lat­ed’ charge sheet against the ac­cused se­nior po­lice of­fi­cers on or be­fore April 27 in the Farid­kot court hear­ing the mat­ter. Me­dia leaks and re­ports are al­ready point­ing in this di­rec­tion.”

No rule or pro­ce­dure of any gov­ern­ment or the model code of con­duct is more im­por­tant than the lives of in­di­vid­u­als. We have lost our dear ones and it is our prayer that the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in the case was go­ing in the right di­rec­tion un­der IG Kun­war Vi­jay Par­tap Singh. The Elec­tion Com­mis­sion must im­me­di­ately re­in­state him so that he can in­ter­vene and put the in­ves­ti­ga­tion and the pur­suit of jus­tice on the right track.”

Sukhraj Singh, son of mar­tyr Kr­is­han Bhag­wan Singh

The let­ter writ­ten by the vic­tim fam­i­lies to the ECI states, “We are deeply con­cerned that 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 will not pre­sent a thor­ough charge sheet against the ac­cused and that would be a trav­esty of jus­tice in a case which has en­gaged the whole pop­u­la­tion of Pun­jab and al­ready moves are afoot to start a pub­lic ag­i­ta­tion on the is­sue.”

With the Bar­gari Mor­cha an­nounc­ing a pub­lic protest on 20 April, the Elec­tion Com­mis­sion has still not un­der­stood that this is a very sen­si­tive is­sue. Sikhs in Pun­jab are deeply con­cerned about the in­ci­dents of sac­ri­lege that hap­pened two years ago lead­ing to the protests in which two Sikhs were killed.

Ad­vo­cate Harpal Singh Khara added that, “Blan­ket bails have been ob­tained by top po­lice ac­cused in­clud­ing for­mer DGP Sumedh Saini, sus­pended IG P S Um­ranan­gal and for­mer MLA Man­tar Singh Brar. If these and other po­lice and ad­min­is­tra­tive of­fi­cials are al­lowed to es­cape rule of law through a weak and in­com­plete charge sheet, the blame will be on the shoul­ders of the Elec­tion Com­mis­sion of In­dia.”

On the other hand, the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal is tout­ing Kun­war Vi­jay Par­tap Singh’s re­moval as its vic­tory, with Parkash Singh Badal even stat­ing, “If he is not there so what, there are oth­ers to do the SIT work.” What he is not telling the peo­ple is that at this junc­ture if Kun­war Vi­jay Par­tap Singh is not re­in­stated, a weak charge sheet will save se­nior po­lice of­fi­cers and politi­cians in­volved in the Be­hbal Kalan killings.

An an­gry Sukhraj Singh said, “No rule or pro­ce­dure of any gov­ern­ment or the model code of con­duct is more im­por­tant than the lives of in­di­vid­u­als. We have lost our dear ones and it is our prayer that the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in the case was go­ing in the right di­rec­tion un­der IG Kun­war Vi­jay Par­tap Singh. The Elec­tion Com­mis­sion must im­me­di­ately re­in­state him so that he can in­ter­vene and put the in­ves­ti­ga­tion and the pur­suit of jus­tice on the right track.”