'Amarinder government protecting those behind sacrilege cases'

A retired High Court judge who probed incidents of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib when the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP government ruled Punjab on Wednesday alleged that the Congress government of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh was trying to shield those responsible for the sacrilege cases.

Justice Zora Singh, a retired judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, who probed the sacrilege cases and the violence related to it in 2015, told the media here that the present government in Punjab was unwilling to make the report of the Zora Singh Commission public.

"It is painful that the Commission constituted by the government to bring those responsible for the desecration of Sri Guru Granth Sahib at Bargari and firing incident at Behbal Kalan in which two persons were killed was not in public domain," said Justice Zora Singh, who recently joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

The one-man Commission was constituted by then SAD-BJP government in Punjab. It submitted its report in 2016 but no action was taken by the SAD-BJP government.

The Congress government, which came to power in March 2017, junked the Commission's report and set up its own inquiry Commission under Justice Ranjit Singh (retired).

Zora Singh said the Amarinder Singh government was shielding those behind the sacrilege incidents and the firing on people protesting against the sacrilege cases by not taking action against them.

"The Amarinder government has failed to make the report public," he said, adding that he had done full justice during the inquiry.

He said that his report had clearly identified the culprits behind the incidents and the government and the Punjab Police were dragging their feet on taking action in the matter.

"The Parkash Singh Badal government, in cahoots with the police, did not want the accused to be brought to book and protected them," Zora Singh alleged.

--IANS

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