Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday slammed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) over its tactics to obstruct the state government’s investigation into the Bargari sacrilege case.

Citing the High Court’s verbal observations of Monday, the CM said the CBI’s attempts to further delay and derail the probe into the sacrilege cases had exposed the central agency’s mal intent, but the state government will not allow it to succeed in its efforts to scuttle the investigations.

After closing the case without completing the probe into the sacrilege cases, the CBI was now indulging in politically motivated acts to prevent the state from undertaking and completing its own probe, he said.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court had on Monday, while dismissing a review petition filed by one of the accused, had orally noted that “these actions of the CBI are contemptuous.”

One would have thought CBI would mend its ways, but another affidavit is filed now stating that the CBI has informed that the withdrawal of consent by the state is illegal, the Court observed.

Either the court’s words had fallen on deaf ears or the CBI was deliberately trying to bury the case and ensure that it does not reach its logical conclusion, said the CM, adding that it was the shameful conduct of the CBI all through the case that had forced his government to withdraw consent to the agency to probe the matter and also not enter without the state’s prior permission in any other case.

Since taking over the sacrilege cases, the Punjab Police has made major strides in solving it, which the CBI, working at the behest of its political matters, clearly was not happy about, the CM added.

Pointing out that the sacrilege cases were the worst kind of crimes that anyone could have perpetrated on the state and its people, Amarinder said there were evidently interests involved in trying to block the probe and protect the culprits, which he and his government will not allow at any cost.

The criminals will be brought to book and justice will be given to the innocent, he asserted, adding that the CBI will not succeed in its manifest bid to stop the investigations by the state police.

The CM said CBI’s failure to hand over the case files to Punjab, followed by its stand in the court, suggested a conspiracy to block the probe by the state. Neither the court nor the state government would accept the lies of the agency in the matter, he added.