Akali Dal Chief Asks Congress To Share Evidence Over Sacrilege Cases. (FILE)
Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Saturday asked Congress leaders to share the proof, if they have any, on the "planning and execution" of the alleged acts of the desecration of a religious text in the state's Faridkot in 2015.
"Congress leaders and their open and secret allies claiming to have concrete proof on who planned, sponsored and executed the unforgivable sacrilege against the Guru Granth Sahib should publicly place that evidence before the Khalsa Panth, court, SIT and people in general," said the SAD president in a statement.
The former state deputy chief minister said it is "truly stunning, unbelievable and unforgivable if these leaders indeed have been refusing to reveal the evidence they have against anyone as they claim day in and day out".
"Conversely, if they don't have that evidence, then they are guilty of telling lies on a matter of such extreme sensitivity and gravity," he said, asking Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, state Congress chief Sunil Jakhar, Minister Sukhjinder Randhawa, Amritsar MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu and AAP MP Bhagwant Mann to share evidence with the Sikh community, judiciary and the probe team.
The SAD president further said if these leaders had some evidence but had been withholding it from the court and the Khalsa Panth, this by itself is not just a legal outrage but also "an act of sacrilege".
The Akali leader said although his party had no faith in "the politically motivated previous SIT", yet they appeared before it and "fully cooperated" as they have "full faith in the law and judiciary".
Mr Badal said his party will fully cooperate with the new SIT too despite the government's only aim behind it being "brazen political vendetta and an attempt to divert people's attention from its utter incompetence, failures and blunders".
Mr Badal's party and its former alliance partner BJP were in power when the incidents had taken place in 2015.
Mr Badal's statement comes at a time when several Congress leaders have been seeking early action against perpetrators of the desecration of the religious text and subsequent police firing incidents in 2015.
Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu has been regularly attacking Chief Minister Amarinder Singh over the alleged delay in the delivery of justice after the Punjab and Haryana Hight Court last month quashed a probe report into an incident of firing against people protesting against the desecration incidents in Punjab's Faridkot.
The court had also asked the state government to form a new SIT to probe the case.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)