Convictions, further probe by SIT in sacrilege, firing

The cases of sacrilege, which had caused massive hurt and anguish among the Sikh community, were comprehensively probed by the Commission of Enquiry headed by Justice Ranjit Singh (Retd), constituted by the

CaptAmarinder Singh government.

The recommendations in the final report of the commission, submitted on August 16, 2018, were accepted by the state government and a decision taken to register criminal cases against all those responsible for ‘beadbi’ and subsequent killing of innocent persons in police firing at BehbalKalan and Kotkapura.

Consequently, 25 police/civil officials were identified/nominated for legal action. Three of them have been convicted so far by the courts and as per a resolution of the Punjab VidhanSabha, an SIT was set up to independently probe cases and to bring the guilty to justice.

Simultaneously, the state government, while enhancing the compensation package to members of families of deceased and the injured persons, presented financial assistance of Rs 1 crore along with job to each family.

Acting swiftly on other cases of sacrilege, the state government during the last 28 months has been able to trace 53 out of 80 cases. In comparison, only 66 out of 132 cases of sacrilege were traced during the previous regime.

(The above content has been received from the Punjab Government under The Tribune Space Marketing Initiative)