Bureau report : The AAP government of Punjab has appointed Gurminder Singh, the lawyer of the accused in the Behbal Kalan shootout, as the new AG of Punjab. What is more interesting is that three of the six Advocate Generals of Punjab appointed since 2017 have represented the accused in the 2015 police firing cases. Represented in the courts.
Amritsar North MLA Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh said, “I respect and admire Advocate General Gurminder Singh’s wisdom, credibility and ability. However, keeping in view the principles of natural justice, it is not justified to appoint a person who has acted as counsel for an accused in Bargari, Kotakpura and Behbal Kalan cases.
He said that unfortunately the advocate general appointed by the Channi government of the Congress, the present advocate general and the former advocate general were the lawyers of the accused in Bargari, Kotakpura and Behbal Kalan cases. That is, three of the six Advocate Generals of Punjab appointed since 2017 had represented the accused in the courts in the 2015 police firing cases. Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh raised the question that when he appeared for an accused, he cannot appear for the state in the same case.
Gurminder Singh is the third Advocate General appointed by the AAP government after March 2022. New Advocate General Gurminder Singh also appeared for the accused in the politically sensitive 2015 police firing case. Advocate General Gurminder Singh told BBC Punjabi that the petition related to Behbal Kalan case in which he represented Paramraj Singh Umranangal, that case has been settled. But if any “conflict of interest” situation arises in future, we will look into it accordingly.
Gurminder Singh has previously served as Additional Advocate General, Deputy Advocate General and Assistant Advocate General in Punjab. AG Gurminder Singh appeared for suspended Inspector General of Police Paramraj Singh Umranangal in a petition related to the 2015 Behbal Kalan police firing case.
In this petition, former DGP Sumedh Saini, the accused in Behbal Kalan-Kotakpura shootout, suspended Inspector General of Police Paramraj Singh Umranangal and the then SHO of Kotkapura Gurdeep Singh, among others, have requested that the investigation be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Punjab in the Behbal Kalan police shootout. A demand was made to cancel the charge sheet presented by the SIT constituted by the government.
In July last year, the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed this petition and the court also asked the Punjab Police to speed up the investigation into the Kotakpura and Behbal Kalan police firing cases. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann also praised the High Court’s decision to dismiss the petitions.
The Chief Minister had said that this verdict has paved the way for the government to demand strict punishment for the policemen accused of firing on innocent protesters at Behbal Kalan. Mann had also said that both Akali and Congress were colluding with each other to save the accused in this case.
On the other hand, Aam Aadmi Party Chief Spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang said that there is no doubt about the legal knowledge and competence of Advocate General Gurminder Singh but if there is a conflict of interest while representing a previous client, he will not appear in it.”
It is a fact that the last two Advocate Generals have also been the advocates of the accused in the Behbal-Kotakpura shooting incident. Advocate General Vinod Ghai, appointed earlier by the Punjab government, represented not only former Director General of Police Sumedh Singh Saini in criminal cases in the High Court. He also represented rape and murder accused Gurmeet Ram Rahim, who is an accused in the 2015 blasphemy case.
Even then, Kunwar Vijay Pratap had questioned his own government on the appointment of Vinod Ghai as the AG of Punjab. Similarly, the Charanjit Singh Channi-led Congress government also appointed senior lawyer APS Deol as Advocate General, who had appeared in courts for the accused in the Kotakpura-Bahbal gang shooting.
Leader of Opposition Pratap Singh Bajwa has also agreed with the statement of AAP MLA Kunwar Vijay Pratap. He said that there is no doubt that Gurminder Singh is a competent lawyer. But he has prosecuted the accused in the Bahlkallan shooting case, the need for justice says that he should not have entrusted the responsibility of the biggest lawyer of the state when the government is fighting the blasphemy and shooting case.
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