The Punjab and Haryana High Court has asked the Punjab Government to replace the head of Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the 2015 Sacrilege Cases.

The Court in the judgement observed that even though it is not discarding the probe conducted by the SIT led by deputy inspector general (DIG) RS Khatra, the team should be headed by a different officer so as to ensure that “no element of prejudice”, whatsoever, remains in the mind of the petitioner.

The judgment passed by a bench comprising of Justice Amol Rattan Singhhas come on the plea of one Sukhjinder Singh, a dera Sacha Sauda follower, who had challenged a summoning order by a trial court, passed after the chargesheet was filed against him by SIT into an registered on June 2, 2015, at Baja Khana police station in Faridkot.

The bench further clarified that the petitioner cannot chose an investigating agency of his own choice and the court directing such change would not in any manner reflect on the conduct of the officer.

The Court also questioned how the petitioner levelled allegations of mala fide against Khatra, but did not make him a party in the case. Khatra, though associated with the probe almost since beginning, was made the SIT head on April 22, 2020.

The second SIT, being headed by Bureau of Investigation head Arpit Shukla with Inspector General of Police Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh as member, is looking into violence case reported after the sacrilege incidents of 2015.

On Monday, the high court had asked the CBI to hand over case files pertaining to sacrilege cases within one month. It had quashed the summons issued by Faridkot court to the petitioner issued on the basis of challan presented by SIT in July 2020.

The High Court has also termed proceedings before special CBI court, Mohali, in this case as “unsustainable” and further directed that all material presented before it would be handed over to Punjab Police. The Punjab Police would take into account evidence collected by the CBI and file a supplementary challan in the FIR, the court has said.

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