Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday lashed out at the CBI and said the Central agency had reduced the entire matter of the Bargari sacrilege cases to a "charade".
The CM also said the CBI was acting on the "diktats of its political masters" in Delhi and the move was "politically motivated".
His comments came in the wake of the CBI filing a plea in a Mohali court on Monday, urging that their earlier closure report be "kept in abeyance".
The Central agency prayed before the court, "Present application may be taken on record considering that further investigation is continuing and till its conclusion the closure report filed earlier may kindly be kept in abeyance."
"The CBI had reduced the entire matter of the Bargari sacrilege cases to a charade. We will not let the CBI get away with such a blatant political move," said the chief minister, adding that the agency had "no explanation" for filing the closure report and "no justification now" for seeking to keep it in abeyance.
He said the CBI plea was clearly aimed at "preventing" the state government from getting the cases investigated by the SIT.
The CM also accused the CBI of resorting to "cheap tactics" by seeking to reopen investigation in the Bargari cases.
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He also questioned as to why the CBI was not sharing its earlier filed closure report.
"What are they trying to hide. The entire affair smacked of a clear attempt to bury the investigation for good," he added.
The CBI plea has come less than a week after the state government filed a revision petition in the CBI special court at Mohali, challenging its July 23 orders dismissing the state's request for a copy of the closure report filed by the agency.
The Chief Minister asked Advocate General Atul Nanda to prepare a strong case against the CBI plea for the "so-called further investigation" in the cases, in which the agency had earlier filed a closure report without a "proper probe or grounds".
"The CBI is obviously acting under the orders of those who do not want the truth to come out," claimed Amarinder while vowing to ensure that the culprits of the Bargari cases will brought to book.
The Special Judicial Magistrate (CBI) last month had passed an order dismissing the state government's application, seeking a copy of the closure report.
On July 4, the CBI had filed its closure report in a special CBI court in Mohali, giving a clean chit to the accused in the three incidents of the desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib in 2015 in Faridkot.
The previous SAD-BJP government had handed over three sacrilege cases to the CBI-- theft of a 'bir' (copy) of the Guru Granth Sahib from a Burj Jawahar Singh Wala gurdwara on June 1, 2015, handwritten sacrilegious posters in Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala on September 25 and torn pages of the holy book at Bargari on October 12, 2015.
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