Behbal Kalan police firing: 2 shaheed

Who: Punjab Police, under the SAD-BJP government of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, and Sikh protesters demanding action over the desecration of Sri Guru Granth Sahib at Bargari. The two killed were Bhai Gurjit Singh of Sarawan (spelt Gurjeet in some reports) and Bhai Krishan Bhagwan Singh of Niamiwala.

What: A saroop had been stolen from the gurdwara at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala on 1 June 2015, and Sikh groups held dharnas for months. On 24 September the Takht heads pardoned the Dera Sacha Sauda chief. On 12 October more than 110 pages of Guru Granth Sahib were found strewn near a gurdwara in Bargari, and protesters blocked the main intersection at Kotkapura. On 14 October police acted against the sit-in at Kotkapura, where one protester was hurt by gunfire. At Behbal Kalan a sit-in on the Kotkapura-Bathinda road was fired on by a police party led, Sikh Siyasat News reported, by the then Moga SSP, Charanjit Sharma. Two men were killed and several injured. The Takht heads withdrew the pardon on 16 October; The Tribune's report on the SIT chargesheet gives 17 October.

Where: Behbal Kalan village and Kotkapura, Faridkot district.

Why it mattered: The firing put the police's own conduct into the sacrilege case. The Justice Ranjit Singh Commission, set up in 2017 under a Congress government, reported in 2018, and the Punjab Vidhan Sabha took up its report on 27 August 2018. It found that the police used "unwarranted" force on peaceful protesters reciting Gurbani at both places, and that the Behbal Kalan firing came without warning or the civil authorities' permission. Its supplementary report said the chief minister and his office were "apparently kept in the loop" about Kotkapura. The SAD rejected the findings as motivated.

A Special Investigation Team arrested former Moga SSP Charanjit Sharma in January 2019 and IGP Paramraj Singh Umranangal on 18 February 2019. At the Akal Takht on 2 December 2024, PTI reported, Sukhbir Singh Badal admitted the charges put to him, among them the pardon and the Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura firings. In June 2026 former Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh gave a statement to the SIT, and Badal replied that he and the SAD were the target. No verdict has been reported.

The High Court (Justice Sandeep Moudgil) moved the murder trial from Faridkot to Chandigarh on 31 May 2024, on a petition by Charanjit Sharma, citing the Supreme Court's earlier transfer of four related FIRs for the safety of the accused and defence witnesses. In May 2025 a victim's family said the Supreme Court had rejected the state's plea to bring the trial back to Faridkot.