A man named Sukhraj Singh has been sitting in a protest demanding justice for his father. Singh is the son of Krishan Bhagwan Singh, who died in a police firing case of October 14, 2015, in Behbal Kalan during a protest against an alleged sacrilege incident of Shri Guru Granth Sahib that had happened some days prior.
According to a report in News18, Singh has been waiting for justice since 2015 against the police personnel who opened fire at the protesters leading to the death of his father.
Around 50 days ago, Sukhraj realized there was no hope left for getting justice from the outgoing Congress government for his father. He put up a tent alongside Faridkot highway and sat in protest of the state government. He told News18, “Neither Captain Amarinder Singh nor Charanjit Singh Channi gave us justice. Captain was removed for inaction in sacrilege and police firing cases. Channi did nothing too.”
In 2017, then-Congress’s CM face Captain Amarinder Singh, had met Mohinder Singh, father of the late Krishan Bhagwan Singh. He said, “Captain Amarinder Singh came to me and told me that when his government is formed, he will put the culprits in jail in 20 days. Rahul Gandhi had also come. Arvind Kejriwal also came. No one gave us justice.” He said Congress came to power with the promise to punish the culprits of the sacrilege and police firing cases, but they did not take strict action.
Death of Krishan Bhagwan Singh
In 2015, Ang (pages) of Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji were found scattered outside Gurudwara Sahib in Bargari. Demanding action against the culprit, people of the Sikh community sat on protests. At Kokkapura and Behbal Kalan, police opened fire against the protesters. Two protesters, Krishan Bhagwan Singh and Gurjeet Singh Bittu had died on the spot at Behbal Kalan.
The state government formed several Special Investigation Teams to investigate the police firing case of Behbal Kalan. Sukhraj Singh said, “The SIT led by Kunwar Pratap Singh charge-sheeted some accused, but the court has not framed charges against them yet. A new SIT was formed by the High court last year to do a time-bound probe into the conspiracy, but that the SIT has not even visited us or done any probe here.”
Sukhraj had met Captain Amarinder when he was CM. He also met CM Charanjit Singh Channi and raised the matter. However, neither Capt Amarinder nor CM Channi acted strictly on the sacrilege and police firing incidents. Sukhraj claimed the Channi government did not do anything in the matter, the family stated. Calling the elections meaningless for his family, he said the governments are useless, and the system has not changed.
‘Krishan was sitting peacefully when he was shot’, says family
Mohinder Singh said his son was sitting peacefully on the protests against the Bargari sacrilege incident. However, the police opened fire all of a sudden resulting in his death. He said, “Police had ‘langar’ with us at the incident spot. I was present there. But on the SSP’s instructions, they suddenly opened fire and told me to run away, but they had already shot my son by then. Another boy from a nearby village was also shot dead. No one came to us later. On our name, Captain (Amarinder) became the CM. But he never came back to us. Our hope is now only on the people to get justice, not the government. We have no hope for elections or parties — the real culprits of the incidents have not been punished.”
The political atmosphere around sacrilege cases
It is notable that Congress came to power claiming they would take strict action against the culprits of sacrilege cases. The inaction from the government mixed with instigation by the religious leaders has led to four murders in alleged sacrilege cases in 2021 alone, six in total since 2015.
Navjot Singh Sidhu, chief of the Punjab State Congress, has been a frontrunner demanding action from the Badal government when they were in power in 2015. Congress came to power, and SITs were formed one after another but did not result in any concrete action. When Capt left the post of CM, he had dared now-CM Channi to act against Badals and said the matter had to be solved legally rather than politically.
