Terming the CBI move as politically motivated and an attempt to scuttle the state government's efforts to take the sacrilege cases to their logical conclusion, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh here on Monday asked Advocate General Atul Nanda to legally oppose the CBI plea for keeping its Bargari closure report in abeyance.
The Chief Minister asked the Advocate General to prepare a strong case against the plea of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for further investigation in the cases, in which the agency had filed a closure report without a proper probe or grounds.
"The CBI reduced the entire matter of the Bargari sacrilege cases to a charade. We will not let the CBI get away with such a blatantly political move," he said and added, his government would fight the agency tooth and nail to ensure justice in the case.
Singh was reacting to the fact that the agency on Monday prayed before the CBI court "that present application may be taken on record considering that further investigation is continuing and till its conclusion the closure report filed earlier may kindly be kept in abeyance."
The CBI plea has come less than a week after the state government filed a revision petition in the CBI special court at Mohali, challenging its July 23 orders dismissing the state's request for a copy of the closure report.
Instead of sharing the closure report, the CBI is now resorting to cheap tactics by seeking to reopen investigations in the Bargari cases, which it had earlier claimed to merit no further probe, said the Chief Minister.
"Why are they not sharing the closure report? What are they trying to hide?" asked Singh, declaring that the entire affair smacked of a clear attempt to bury the investigation for good.
Lashing out at the CBI for acting on the diktats of its political masters in Delhi, he questioned the sudden need on the part of the agency for further probe.
"They had no explanation earlier for filing the closure report and no justification now for seeking to keep it in abeyance," he said, adding CBI plea was aimed at preventing the state government from getting the cases investigated by the special investigating team.