Chandigarh, February 26 – The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursday rejected the newly formed Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab to investigate the 328 unaccounted "swaroops" (copies) of the Guru Granth Sahib, while claiming that a new team had been formed solely because the previous SIT refused to follow illegal orders to implicate party chief Sukhbir Badal in the case.
Reacting to this development, senior leaders Maheshinder Singh Grewal and Parambans Singh Romana, while asserting that the AAP government was indulging in cheap politics, said that the aim of this SIT also remains the same – to use the excuse of the unaccounted "swaroops" to target the SAD President.
They also questioned why officers who were under scrutiny, including the new Chairman Nanak Singh, who was being investigated for his role in the assault on an army officer, and those who had a personal vendetta against the SAD government, like Gurbans Singh Bains, had been included in the SIT.
Grewal and Romana also noted that the AAP government has disregarded the directive of the Akal Takht jathedar to appoint only "amritdhari" (those who consume the sacramental liquid) officers to the SIT, as they could observe the required "maryada" (code of conduct) while investigating the case.
The leaders warned the SIT officers not to engage in any wrongdoing at the behest of the AAP leadership. They said that the entire Sikh community was watching how the AAP government was conducting the investigation into the unaccounted "swaroops."
Arguing that the devotees understand that the "swaroops" are not missing as all of them were dispatched to "gurughars" (places of worship), the Akali Dal leaders warned that if the SIT officers use the excuse of investigation to register false cases against the SAD leadership, they should be prepared to face the repercussions as per law, as everyone is equal before the law.