Punjab Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu targets Arvind Kejriwal over 2015 sacrilege issue

Punjab Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu on Friday targeted AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal over the 2015 sacrilege issue, asking who was stopping his party’s government in the state from taking action against those involved in the desecration of religious text. Sidhu, the former Punjab Congress chief, shared a video clip from last year in which Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal is heard saying that action can be taken against the accused in the sacrilege incidents within 24 hours. “So who is stopping you now….@ArvindKejriwal,” Sidhu said in a tweet.

Congress MLA Pargat Singh too shared the video clip and asked Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, “Who is stopping you now?” In the clip posted by Sidhu on his Twitter handle, Kejriwal is heard saying that the people of Punjab were angry at the inaction over the 2015 Faridkot sacrilege incidents. “The masterminds in the sacrilege incidents have not been punished till now. I don’t need to tell who the masterminds are. The names are there in the report of Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, and (Charanjit Singh) Channi saab can go through that. The culprits can be arrested within 24 hours,” Kejriwal said the clip, addressing the media. Former IPS officer Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh was part of a special investigation team probing the 2015 Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan police firing incidents in Punjab. He joined the AAP last year and was elected as MLA from the Amritsar North assembly segment. The incidents of sacrilege and subsequent police firing had taken place in Faridkot in 2015, when the SAD-BJP government was in power in the state. The previous Congress-led government was targeted by the AAP over its inaction on the issue. Three cases — theft of a “bir” (copy) of the Guru Granth Sahib from the Burj Jawahar Singh Wala gurdwara, putting up of handwritten sacrilegious posters in Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala, and torn pages of the holy book found scattered in Bargari — were registered in 2015.