COURTESY HT DEC 23

BoI letter to CBI was not written with govt approval: Punjab to HC
The central agency filed a closure report in these cases in July 2019
HT Correspondent

letterschd@hindustantimes.com

Chandigarh : The Punjab government on Tuesday told the Punjab and Haryana high court that the 2019 letter by the director, Bureau of Investigation (BoI), asking the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to further probe the 2015 sacrilege cases was not written with the approval of the government.

Arun Sekhri, secretary home, in an affidavit, said that he had perused records including the file notings and the letter written by then director, BoI on July 29, 2019, to the CBI and it was not forwarded for approval to the Punjab government.

“It has been consistent stand of the State of Punjab, starting from the resolution of the Vidhan Sabha .... that sacrilege cases stand withdrawn from the CBI,” Sekhri says adding that prior to this letter and after this communication with CBI and Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), state’s stand had been indicative that cases stand withdrawn. The issue of withdrawal of sanction was tested in high court too and in a judgment in January 2019, it was upheld, Sekhri claimed.

The response came after high court had asked government to clarify whether this letter was written with government approval in July 2019 even as the Punjab government in September 2018 had withdrawn consent to CBI to probe these three FIRs. The state had issued notification withdrawing cases from CBI on September 6, 2018. CBI filed a closure report in July 2019 in these cases and days after that the letter in question to probe further these cases was written. The letter also read it was written with the concurrence of the DGP. With these submissions of the government, senior advocate Vinod Ghai submitted that CBI probe all along has been on the basis of the letter written on July 29, 2019 as it had already filed closure report. He also questioned whether any action was taken against the officer concerned for going against stated position of the state.

The court was hearing plea of one Sukhjinder Singh and another Dera Sacha Sauda follower Shakti Singh, who have questioned probe by two agencies in the same FIRs. They say parallel probe of same alleged offence is not permissible in law by two agencies. In the case in hand, the CBI says it is probing the FIRs, whereas state government has constituted a special investigation team (SIT), which too is probing these FIRs. Two persons were killed in the violence at Behbal Kalan in 2015