Summary:
CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday asked the Punjab government to produce a status report regarding the investigation into the Maur blast case of Bathinda district.A division bench headed by acting Chief Justice A K Mittal passed these orders while hearing a plea seeking directions to hand over the investigation of the case to the National Investigating Agency (NIA) or the CBI for a fair and speedy probe.The matter has been adjourned for July 4. The case is presently being investigated by a special investigation team (SIT) of the Punjab Police.The matter has reached before the HC in the wake of the petition filed by Gurjeet Singh Patran of Patiala, and two others.According to the petition, the investigation of the case has been virtually stalled after the news that the vehicle used in the blast was prepared in the VIP workshop of Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS), Sirsa, and two close associates of dera head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh were involved in the investigation.The petitioners have sought directions for the investigation of the blast that occurred on January 30, 2017, to be given to the NIA or CBI and concluded in a time-bound manner. As many as seven people lost their lives and 12 were injured in the blast.Counsel for the petitioners, advocate M S Joshi told the HC that the SIT had failed to interrogate Gurmeet and Harminder Singh Jassi in relation to the case as it has been alleged that the Maur bomb blast was operated under a deep-rooted conspiracy hatched to get sympathy votes in the 2017 assembly elections and to defame another political party.Jassi belongs to the ruling Congress, and it could be the reason that the investigation in such a serious matter such as Maur bomb blast had not reached a logical conclusion despite that one and half year has passed, submitted the counsel for the petitioners.It is suspected that the Punjab Police are under some political pressure and are unable to crack the deep-rooted conspiracy as names of very influential people may be involved, therefore, this case was required to be investigated by a central agency such as CBI or NIA, the petitioners have stated..