Chandigarh, April 10 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday ordered the transfer of trial in two FIRs related to the 2015 Kotkapura firing incident from Faridkot to Chandigarh. The order was passed by a bench of justice Tribhuvan Dahiya, while acting on petitions filed by former Moga senior superintendent of police (SSP) Charanjit Sharma and retired inspector general of police (IGP) Paramraj Singh Umranangal. A detailed order is awaited. On 14 October 2015, Punjab Police reportedly opened fire on Sikh protesters demonstrating against the sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib at Bargari. While the simultaneous firing at Behbal Kalan resulted in two deaths, the Kotkapura event left approximately 100 people injured. Sharma and Umranangal had approached the high court in 2024 demanding that trial in these two FIRs be transferred as other linked cases have already been transferred by the high court and the Supreme Court to Chandigarh. Sharma's counsel Sangram Saron had told the court that the high court had already transferred the trial on May 31, 2024, in Behbal Kalan firing case. Thereupon, in this case, a reference was made by the trial court for consideration of transfer of trial in these cases also. However, the same remained pending. Acting on the plea, the high court stayed the trial court proceedings in February 2025. The case (FIR 129) was registered at Kotkapura police station on August 7, 2018, and another FIR was filed on October 14, 2015 (FIR No. 192). The two FIRs followed three incidents of sacrilege with the first reported on June 1, 2015, when a "bir" (copy) of Guru Granth Sahib was stolen from a gurdwara at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village in Faridkot. Later, derogatory posters were put up at Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala on September 24, 2015, night and torn pages of a "bir" were found scattered near Bargari gurdwara on October 12, 2015. Besides Sharma and Umranangal, former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, former Punjab Police chief Sumedh Singh Saini are among the accused in these cases. The Behbal Kalan trial was transferred by high court taking note of police communications from time to time issued in respect of increased vigil and extra deployment of police force at court premises whenever the hearing of these cases took place. The court had also taken note of murder of Pardeep Kataria, a Dera Sacha Sauda follower, in November 2022. He was an accused in sacrilege related cases and was murdered in broad daylight despite being provided government security. In February 2023, the Supreme Court had ordered transfer of trial in three interlinked cases of the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib at Bargari in 2015 from Faridkot to Chandigarh. In these cases, the Punjab Police special investigation team (SIT) named Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim as the "main conspirator". The trial is underway before a court in Chandigarh....