Prateek Tanmay
4 min readUpdated: Jul 17, 2026 03:07 PM IST
A Punjab Police Special Investigation Team probing the 2015 Behbal Kalan police firing incident has summoned SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal to appear before it on July 20, even as senior BJP leader Vijay Sampla alleged that the Punjab government was attempting to politically influence the investigation into the sacrilege cases by circulating “false propaganda” in his name.
“For the last 10 years, politics has been played over the sacrilege issue. Now that elections are approaching, the AAP government has started a drama again,” Badal said, adding that he had joined the investigation before, and will cooperate whenever he is called.
The development comes days after BJP leader and former Sampla was summoned in the same case.
A message allegedly circulated by a person holding a political appointment in the Punjab government claimed that Sampla had denied signing a representation submitted to the Punjab Governor along with Badal in connection with the sacrilege case.
Dismissing the claim as “completely false, baseless and misleading,” Sampla said the alleged misinformation was an attempt to divert shared the same attention from the government’s failure to secure justice in the sacrilege cases and the related Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura police firing incidents.
He further questioned how a politically appointed individual had access to information regarding the statements he had made before the Punjab Police SIT, constituted to investigate the sacrilege incidents and the subsequent police firing cases.
“If a political appointee has knowledge of my statement before the SIT, it raises serious questions about political interference in the investigation. It suggests that the Punjab Government is playing politics over an extremely sensitive issue rather than focusing on delivering justice,” Sampla alleged.
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The BJP leader also questioned why a political appointee was issuing media statements on matters related to the SIT when the Punjab Police already has designated media officers and authorised spokespersons for official communication.
“If the SIT has any information to share, it should be conveyed only through the official communication channels of the Punjab Police. Why is a politically appointed person briefing the media on its behalf?” he asked.
Sampla alleged that the Punjab government was resorting to misinformation to conceal what he described as its failure over the past four years and four months to bring those responsible for the sacrilege incidents and the Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura police firing cases to justice.
In June 2015, a ‘bir’ of the Guru Granth Sahib was stolen from the gurdwara at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village in Faridkot district, followed by the surfacing of hand-written posters containing derogatory language about the holy book there and at Bargari village in the district. Later, torn pages of Guru Granth Sahib were found scattered in front of the gurdwara in Bargari.
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The incidents sparked massive anti-sacrilege protests in Faridkot. On October 14, 2015, police opened fire on the protesters, in which two persons – Gurjeet Singh and Krishan Bhagwan Singh – were killed at Behbal Kalan, while some others were injured at Kotkapura.
The Akali Dal was in power in Punjab at the time, with late Parkash Singh Badal as the chief minister, and his son Sukhbir Badal as his deputy. The SIT is examining the sequence of events leading up to the police action in October 2015, sources said.
Former SAD MLA Mantar Brar had spoken to then-chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, then-home minister Sukhbir Badal, and the DGP before the police action against the protesters, according to sources.
The officer on special duty (OSD) to Parkash Singh Badal had said that the order to remove the protesters came during the night, the sources said.
