Akshay Kumar to appear before Punjab SIT LATEST updates: A special investigation team (SIT) of the Punjab Police, which is investigating the incidents of sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib and the subsequent firing on protesters in 2015, is likely to question Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar here on Wednesday in connection with an alleged deal mediated by the actor between controversial godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim and former Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal. The Punjab Police sources said that Kumar had moved a request that he be allowed to meet the SIT officials in Chandigarh instead of Amritsar, where he had been originally summoned. Kumar will be questioned regarding his alleged role in brokering a deal between the controversial godman, who was later convicted of rape and sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment and Sukhbir Badal in Mumbai in 2015 just days before the release of a film of the godman. [caption id=“attachment_5534001” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of actor Akshay Kumar. Image courtesy: Facebook/@Padm[/caption] Kumar has denied that he arranged any such meeting or had any role in brokering the deal. On his part, Badal said on Tuesday that he had never met Akshay Kumar outside Punjab. “I have never met Akshay Kumar outside Punjab,” Badal said. Sukhbir Badal was questioned by the SIT at the Punjab Police headquarters on Monday. He termed the questioning as a sham and alleged that the Congress government in Punjab led by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh was indulging in political vendetta. Former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on 16 November was questioned by the SIT headed by additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Pramod Kumar and Inspector General Kunwar Vijay Pratap. The senior Badal said that he told the SIT that he had not ordered firing on Sikh protesters agitating against the sacrilege incidents in October 2015. Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had said earlier that his government had no role in the summoning of the Badals and actor Akshay Kumar by the SIT. The SIT was set up by the Amarinder government in September this year to probe cases of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib and the firing ordered on those protesting against the sacrilege cases in October 2015 when the Akali Dal-BJP alliance government headed by Parkash Singh Badal was in power in the state. Two persons were killed in the police firing in Behbal Kalan village near Kotkapura town in Faridkot district.
Akshay Kumar sacrilege row LIVE updates: Actor accused of facilitating meeting between Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and Sukhbir Badal
Akshay Kumar to appear before Punjab SIT LIVE updates: Kumar will be questioned regarding his alleged role in brokering a deal between the controversial godman, who was later convicted of rape and sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment and Sukhbir Badal in Mumbai in 2015 just days before the release of a film of the godman.
 "Akshay Kumar sacrilege row LIVE updates: Actor accused of facilitating meeting between Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and Sukhbir Badal")
Protests in 2015 were linked to pardon of Ram Rahim Singh for ‘sacrilege’
In October 2015, two people were killed and 60 injured in police firing when they were protesting against a series of incidents of desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy text of the Sikhs. The first such incident was reported from Bargari in Faridkot district.
A supplementary report, prepared by the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission in 2018, named Badal for his “apparent involvement” in police action against anti-sacrilege protestors at Kotkapura, Scroll.in reported. The commission found that the protests were linked to the pardon of Gurmeet Ram Rahim, the chief of the Dera Sacha Sauda, by the Akal Takht. Ram Rahim had earned the ire of the Sikh community when he dressed up as the 10th Sikh Guru Gobind Singh, which many Sikhs considered to be sacrilege. He was censured by the Akal Takht, but pardoned later. The commission had said that Akshay had mediated between the Badals and the Dera Sacha Sauda to secure the pardon for Ram Rahim.
SIT has examined more than 80 people till now
The SIT had earlier examined ADGP Jitendra Jain, then IG Bathinda; IGP Paramraj Singh Umaranangal; then Commissioner, Ludhiana; IGP Amar Singh Chahal, then DIG Ferozepur Range; MS Jaggi, then Faridkot DC; SS Mann, then Faridkot SSP; VK Syal then Faridkot SDM, besides Mantar Singh Brar, then Kotkapura MLA. In addition, 50 private persons and more than 30 police officials of junior rank have also been examined.
The five-member SIT was set up by the Captain Amarinder Singh government in September 2018, soon after issuance of the notification to withdraw investigation of sacrilege incidents of Sri Guru Granth Sahib from CBI.
Former chief minister Prakash Singh Badal yet to appear before SIT
Meanwhile, former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had not appeared before the Commission saying his party had already rejected it. The Commission had said that the then chief minister Badal was likely to have granted permission to use force on the protesters, The Tribune reported.
The summons relates to the investigation of cases originating from the various incidents of sacrilege in the year 2015. The summons had been issued under Section 160 of CrPC, requiring attendance at investigation, relating to the Bargari sacrilege case and the Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura police firing incidents.
Akshay denied all accusations, said never met Dera chief
Akshay had issued a denial on 12 November after the SIT summoned him along with former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal. Akshay tweeted a statement clarifying that he has never met the Dera Sacha Sauda chief.
— Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) November 12, 2018
Akshay accused of facilitating meeting between Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and Sukhbir Singh Badal
The SIT has already questioned former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Singh Badal in Chandigarh. Sukhbir told SIT members on Monday that he had never met Akshay outside Punjab when asked if he had met the actor in Mumbai.
The Justice Ranjit Singh commission report, which was tabled in the Punjab assembly in August, had referred to a letter written on 9 October 2017 to it by former MLA Harbans Jalal, claiming that the Dera chief and the former deputy chief minister had met at the actor’s flat in Mumbai in 2015 to facilitate the release of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s movie ‘MSG’ in Punjab. The meeting was allegedly held before the Dera chief was pardoned in a blasphemy case. The movie could not be released in Punjab in September 2015 because of an edict by the Akal Takht against it.
The summons to Akshay had been issued in connection with the Bargari sacrilege case and the police firing at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura. The five-member SIT was set up by the state government in September 2018, soon after issuance of the notification to withdraw investigation of sacrilege incidents of Guru Granth Sahib from CBI, PTI reported.
Akshay Kumar reaches Chandigarh, to appear before SIT
Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar has reached Chandigarh and will shortly appear before a Special Investigation Team (SIT) which is probing the police firing on mobs protesting the 2015 incidents of desecration of Guru Granth Sahib in Punjab.
The SIT had given Akshay the option of appearing before it in Chandigarh instead of Amritsar. The Punjab Police SIT had earlier summoned him to Amritsar circuit house on 21 November. “We have given him (Akshay) the freedom to appear here (in Chandigarh),” SIT member and Inspector General of Police Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh said on Tuesday.
Akshay, whose name figures in the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report on the desecration incidents, has already denied arranging any meeting between former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and Dera Sacha Sauda sect head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. The actor had also denied having ever met Ram Rahim Singh, who is currently serving a 20-year jail term in two rape cases.
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