Bad news for Badals ahead of SGPC polls as HC tells CBI to hand over sacrilege probe to police

Punjab and Haryana High Court Monday ordered CBI to hand over case, in which Akali leaders are the accused, to the Punjab Police, a long-standing demand of ruling Congress.

File photo of Parkash Singh Badal | Wikimedia Commons

Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the CBI to hand over all case diaries and papers related to the 2015 sacrilege incidents to the Punjab Police within a month.

The court’s directions came Monday during a hearing on the plea of one of the accused in the sacrilege incidents, Sukhjinder Singh alias Sunny.

The move brings bad news for the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which was in power in the state when the incidents took place. A one-man commission, headed by retired judge Ranjit Singh and appointed by the ruling Congress, had in August 2018 concluded that there was a possibility that the then Akali government was “under pressure” not to act.

It also alleged that then chief minister Parkash Singh Badal of the Akali Dal was “in the know of the situation” when police fired at the protesters agitating against the sacrilege incidents. Two people were killed in the police action.

The incidents date back to June 2015 when copies of the Guru Granth Sahib — considered to be a living Guru by Sikhs — were found missing and mutilated at various places in Punjab. After the police efforts failed to nab the culprits, the then Badal government handed over the probe to the CBI.

Once the Congress government assumed power under Chief Minister Amarinder Singh in 2017, it accused the Badals of desecration and in 2018, decided to withdraw the cases from CBI and hand them over to a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the state police.

Since then there has been a tug-of-war between the CBI and the Punjab Police to probe the cases. Monday’s order of the high court finally allows the state police to take over and casts a shadow over the Badals ahead of the SGPC elections later this year and the assembly polls next year.

In a press statement issued Monday, Amarinder termed the high court’s directions as an “endorsement” of the state government’s stand on the investigations.

“It is high time the CBI listened to the courts and handed the case files back to the state so that the perpetrators of the crimes could be brought to justice,” the chief minister said.

Akalis on the slide

The Akalis, whose core vote-bank is the Jat Sikh, have been in trouble ever since multiple incidents of sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib were reported. The Badal government could not trace those responsible for the desecration. It also poorly handled the aftermath of the incidents.

The sacrilege incidents dominated the 2017 assembly elections in which the SAD-BJP combine suffered a humiliating defeat.

The Akalis’ political graph has been on the slide ever since. The century-old party imploded soon after, with its old guard deserting it, while blaming the Badals for “mishandling” the incidents.

In the 2019 parliamentary polls, the SAD-BJP combine won just four of the 13 seats in the state — the Akalis bagged only two of the 10 they contested while BJP took home two of the three it contested.

Congress has kept issue simmering

The Congress, which had promised “justice” for the sacrilege ahead of the 2017 assembly elections, has kept the issue simmering even after five years of the incidents.

After the Justice Ranjit Singh (retd) Commission held the Badals responsible for the incidents, the Punjab assembly had in 2018 passed a resolution to withdraw the probe from the CBI and hand it over to the Punjab Police.

In 2019, the Punjab Police filed a charge sheet in a Faridkot court, indicting then deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, former Akali MLA Mantar Singh Brar and the then Punjab DGP Sumedh Singh Saini for firing on the Sikh protesters that led to two deaths.

The Akalis who have been insisting on continuing with the CBI probe have alleged that the Congress will use the police investigation to damage them politically.

SGPC elections

The HC decision comes at a politically inopportune time for the Akali Dal. Assembly elections are slated for 2022 but before them, polls are expected to be held for the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) later this year.

The SGPC controls the functioning of most of the historical gurdwaras in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. It is dominated by the Akalis who have a majority in the committee. When not in power, the Akalis tend to wield influence in the state through the SGPC.

Since the electorate of the SGPC includes the entire adult Sikh population of the state, the Akalis dominating the organisation is considered to be a reaffirmation of the party’s continuing hold over its core vote-bank.

This year’s polls were already expected to be tougher as apart from the Congress-backed candidates, the Akalis will have to contend with their breakaway factions that have come together to form a “Panthic Front”.

An adverse probe report by the Punjab Police into the incidents of sacrilege, which is primarily a religious issue, could further hurt SAD’s fortunes in the SGPC elections.

With no BJP, more trouble for SAD

The Akalis were the BJP’s oldest allies but broke off the alliance over the three central farm acts in September last year.

All these years, the Badals’ close association with the NDA had ensured that the CBI, which was probing these cases, continued to fight for its turf.

The CBI had in July last year filed a closure report in the cases but requested to reopen them five months later. The agency has also been assiduously fighting to hold onto the probe, in the Supreme Court.

But with the situation now changed, the CBI is not expected to appeal the high court’s orders in the Supreme Court, leaving the Akalis to fend for themselves.