Former Punjab deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal Monday told the Special Investigation Team members that he has never met Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar outside Punjab. Mr Badal appeared before the team probing the 2015 police firing incidents at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura following sacrilege incidents in Faridkot, even as he described the investigation as "politically motivated ." Akshay Kumar Summoned by Special Investigation Team in The Wake of Bargari Sacrilege Case.

Sukhbir Badal, who was questioned at the Punjab police headquarters in Chandigarh for about an hour, was also asked whether he met the actor in Mumbai. The name of actor Akshay Kumar was mentioned in Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report on sacrilege incidents, tabled in Punjab Vidhan Sabha in August this year.

"They (SIT) asked me whether you met Akshay in Mumbai. I asked them what the proof behind this claim was. I told them I never met Akshay Kumar outside Punjab in my life. I met him at a sports function (in Punjab)," he told reporters.

Notably, SIT, besides summoning Sukhbir and former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had also summoned Akshay Kumar. According to the report, Sukhbir Singh Badal had met self-styled Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh at actor's Mumbai home in 2015, before he was pardoned in a blasphemy case. Akshay Kumar had then denied having met him.

The former Deputy Chief Minister added that he was not in the state when the Kotkapura incident took place. Notably, former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had been questioned by the team on November 16.