Behbal Kalan

Behbal Kalan is a village in Faridkot district, Punjab. On 14 October 2015, with the SAD-BJP coalition in power, police fired here on Sikhs protesting the sacrilege at Bargari, and killed two of them. Police also fired at Kotkapura the same day.

Key moments

• 12 October 2015: more than 110 pages of the Guru Granth Sahib are found scattered near a gurdwara at Bargari. Protesters say they came from a bir stolen from a gurdwara at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala on 1 June.
• 14 October 2015: two Sikhs are shot dead at Behbal Kalan, Bhai Krishan Bhagwan Singh of Niamiwala and Bhai Gurjeet Singh of Sarawan.
• 2018: former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini appears before the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission, which submitted one of four parts of its report on 30 June.
• January and February 2019: the SIT arrests Charanjit Sharma, former SSP Moga, and on 18 February IGP Paramraj Singh Umranangal.
• 15 January 2021: the SIT files a supplementary chargesheet at Faridkot against Saini and Umranangal, whom it nominated in September 2020. It relies on 22 phone calls between them, and alleges that the police fired without permission from the duty magistrate or SDM. The two officers are accused, and these are allegations.
• 31 May 2024: the High Court moves the trial from Faridkot to Chandigarh. By May 2025 the Supreme Court has rejected the state’s plea to move it back, and a victim’s relative says the investigation is incomplete and no final chargesheet has been filed.
• 2 December 2024: the Akal Takht pronounces religious punishment on Sukhbir Singh Badal, who had admitted the mistakes of the SAD years, including the police firing at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura.
• June 2026: Giani Raghbir Singh, a former Akal Takht jathedar, tells the SIT that “unarmed and innocent protesters were targeted under a conspiracy during the SAD regime”, the Tribune reports on 11 June. Badal says the main target is himself and the SAD, and alleges that Raghbir Singh had been working as an AAP member.

What it means today. More than ten years on, the case has not reached a verdict. The trial has been moved out of Faridkot, and the families of the dead still describe the investigation as unfinished.