Probe into sacrilege cases in Punjab: No stay on SIT investigations yet; court fixes July 20 for final orders

PATIALA: The court of special judicial magistrate GS Sekhon (CBI Court Mohali), on Friday refused to order an interim stay on the investigations being carried out by the special investigating team (SIT) of the Punjab Police which is looking into the three FIRs registered at Bajakhana police station in Faridkot district to probe the sacrilege incidents that took place in 2015.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had on Tuesday moved the court seeking restraining orders on the investigations being carried out by the SIT into the three sacrilege cases claiming that parallel investigations could not be run as per the procedure of the law.Following this, the court had issued notice to the state government, the Punjab police and complainants in these three cases.
The court had fixed July 10 as the date of hearing. During the hearing on Friday, the counsel for the CBI contended that the court should immediately restrain the Punjab Police SIT from conducting the parallel investigations into the three cases in which the Central Bureau has already filed closure report before the court.
The counsel for the state government argued that they had not received the copy of the application filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation and sought time from the court to file their reply.
Taking into consideration the contentions brought up by the counsel for the state government, the court ordered that all replies should be put up before the court by July 18 and fixed July 20 as the next date of hearing to decide on the application moved by the CBI.
The court however turned down the pleas made by the counsel for the CBI to order an interim order restraining the Punjab Police SIT from carrying out the investigations in the three cases while placing on record that it was not legal to run parallel investigations.
The court observed that in the formal application filed before the court no specific request for an interim restraining order has been made and therefore, such orders cannot be passed.
The court, however, passed strict orders that there should be no unnecessary delay in filing of the replies and in case the state government or the complainants fail to give their replies in the court by July 18, it will be presumed that they are not interested in pursuing the matter in the court.
During the court proceedings Satnam Singh Kaler, counsel for one of the complainants Kulvinder Singh, contended that even as the sacrilege incidents took place 5 years back, the trials in these cases have not yet started.
He said that these incidents had hurt the religious sentiments of the Sikhs across the world and the court should expedite the procedure to deliver justice.
The court observed that these arguments were genuine and that the process should be expedited and ordered that no party shall be allowed to cause any unnecessary delays in the proceedings.
Court has now fixed July 20 as the next date of hearing during which the final decision on the application moved by the Central Bureau of Investigation seeking restraining orders on the Punjab Police is likely to be decided.