DW BUREAU / Chandigarh

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia on Tuesday asked the Punjab Police to come clean and tell why it had projected the assassination bid on party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal as a "lone wolf" attempt when a second assailant and Khalistan Commando Force (KCF) terrorist Dharam Singh had been identified as an accomplice.

Majithia released video evidence from CCTV camera footage of the Sri Darbar Sahib complex on December 3 in which Narain Chaura, the ISI operative who attacked Sukhbir Singh Badal, was accompanied by KCF terrorist Dharam Singh and another unidentified accomplice, who is yet to be identified.

"It has fallen on us to identify the accomplices of Narain Chaura even as the Amritsar Police has termed the incident as a lone wolf operation."

Asserting that this was not all a 'lone wolf' attack, Majithia said the Amritsar Police had diluted the FIR registered in the case by giving the impression that a bullet had been fired into the air in the melee instead of mentioning that a personal security personnel of Sukhbir Singh Badal had averted the tragedy at the very last second by showing immense presence of mind.

"The intention of Chaura to kill Sukhbir Badal and the fact that he missed narrowly with the bullet being registered in the wall of the Darshani Deodi in the Sri Darbar Sahib complex is not mentioned in the FIR."

"Moreover, calling Chaura a devotee instead of mentioning that the latter had committed a premeditated crime is also aimed at letting Chaura off the hook."

Majithia also questioned the integrity of Amritsar Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar, who knew that Chaura was a "dreaded terrorist" as he had questioned him in connection with a case during his tenure as the Senior Superintendent of Police posted in Mohali in 2013.

"Despite recoveries like RDX, grenades, and an AK-47 being seized from Chaura and evidence that the terrorist had put his intention to assassinate Sukhbir Badal on record, the Amritsar Police did not act against Chaura. Far from acting against Chaura and apprehending him when the latter conducted a recce of the Sri Darbar Sahib complex on December 3, Superintendent of Police Harpal Randhawa escorted the terrorist during his visit to the holy shrine."

The Akali Dal leader said only the arrest and questioning of the Superintendent of Police Harpal Randhawa could reveal the truth in the case.

(editor@dailyworld.in)