JALANDHAR: As the demand for a CBI probe into the suicide of Punjab State Warehousing Corporation district manager Gagandeep Randhawa grows, Punjab’s uneasy past with the central agency has come back into focus. In Nov 2020, the then Congress govt withdrew its general consent to the CBI after a prolonged legal and political battle over the probe into the electorally sensitive 2015 sacrilege cases.At the time, Punjab became the third state in three days — and the eighth in five years — to withdraw general consent to the agency.The fallout stemmed from the 2015 Bargari and related sacrilege cases, which were initially handed over to the CBI by the then Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP govt. However, the CBI’s findings were completely at odds with those of the Punjab Police SIT. The state govt later fought the matter in the Punjab and Haryana high court and then in the Supreme Court to get the cases transferred back to the Punjab Police after the state assembly passed a resolution to that effect in August 2018.In the present suicide case, former AAP minister Laljit Singh Bhullar is the main accused, while his father and personal assistant have also been named in the FIR.Punjab had withdrawn its general consent to the CBI under Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, 1946. Mizoram was the first state to do so on July 17, 2015, followed by West Bengal on Nov 16, 2018, and Chhattisgarh on Jan 10, 2019. Rajasthan withdrew consent on July 19, 2020, while Maharashtra did so on Oct 21, 2020. Kerala, Jharkhand and Punjab followed in quick succession on Nov 4, 5 and 6, 2020, respectively.The Bargari and related cases saw a major turn when the Punjab Police SIT, led by then DIG Ranbir Singh Khattra, claimed to have cracked the case in June 2018. Later, Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim was named as an accused in sacrilege-related cases.After debating the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report, constituted by the Amarinder Singh govt, the Punjab assembly on Aug 28, 2018, passed a resolution seeking withdrawal of the cases from the CBI and their transfer to the Punjab Police SIT.Acting on the resolution, the Punjab govt on August 6, 2018, issued a notification withdrawing the cases and asked the Union govt to hand them back to the state police along with any status reports, updated files and material evidence collected by the CBI.The CBI, however, continued its probe and moved the Punjab and Haryana high court, arguing that the state govt could not take back the case after the agency had already begun its investigation. On Jan 25, 2019, the high court dismissed the CBI’s petition and upheld the Punjab govt’s stand.Despite the Punjab Police SIT arresting the accused, the CBI filed a closure report in a Mohali trial court on July 4, 2019. The Punjab govt termed the report illegitimate, maintaining that the cases had already been withdrawn from the agency. The CBI later moved the Supreme Court in Jan 2020 against the high court order, but the apex court, on Feb 20, 2020, dismissed its plea on grounds of delay and allowed the Punjab Police SIT to continue the probe.It was against this backdrop that the Capt Amarinder Singh-led Punjab govt withdrew general consent to the CBI in Nov 2020.Punjab BJP meets governor, again pushes for CBI probeA BJP delegation, led by state president Sunil Jakhar and working chief Ashwani Sharma, met governor Gulab Chand Kataria on Wednesday and submitted a representation urging him to recommend a CBI investigation into the suicide case of Gagandeep Singh Randhawa. Jakhar said when state’s ministers themselves were facing allegations, how could one expect a fair probe by police. He added the family of deceased and the people of Punjab wanted a CBI probe.
