Farmers Movement Archive

Bargari sacrilege: Punjab Police SIT files chargesheet against 4 dera men

The Punjab Police special investigation team (SIT) probing the 2015 sacrilege incidents on Tuesday filed a chargesheet in a Faridkot court against four Dera Sacha Sauda followers for pasting derogatory posters near the gurdwaras of Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala villages in Faridkot district on September 24, 2015. However, the SIT has not named Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in this case so far. Sources said the SIT is looking for clinching evidence before naming the dera head. Also read: Sidhu shown black flags by farmers protesting against farm laws in Punjab3 absconding dera members named conspirators The chargesheet was filed in the court of judicial magistrate Tarjani against Sukhjinder Singh, alias Sunny, and Ranjit Singh, alias Bhola, both residents of Kotkapura, Shakti Singh of Daggu Romana village and Baljit Singh of Sikhanwala village in Faridkot district. The SIT has also named dera follower Mohinder Pal Singh Bittu, who was killed in Nabha jail, and three absconding members of the Sirsa-based dera’s national committee as conspirators in the case. They are Sandeep Bareta, Pardeep Kaler and Harsh Dhuri, all residents of Haryana. The challan was filed under Sections 295-A (malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class), 506 (criminal intimidation), 120-B (being party to a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence) and 153-A (promoting enmity between groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence or language etc) of the Indian Penal Code. Sacrilege threat if MSG-2 film release stalled The SIT said that Sukhjinder wrote the posters and pasted two of them on the gate of the gurdwara at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala along with Ranjit. “Shakti brought A-4 size papers and the marker from the stationary shop of Gopal at Bargari. He along with Baljit pasted the poster at the Bargari gurdwara,” the SIT found. In the three posters, it was threatened that the “bir (copy)” of Guru Granth Sahib stolen from Burj Jawahar Singh Wala on June 1, 2015, would be torn if the Gurmeet Ram Rahim film Messenger of God (MSG)-2 was not allowed to be released in Punjab. Court dismisses dera follower’s plea The move comes a day after the Punjab and Haryana high court dismissed Sukhjinder’s plea, challenging the SIT’s action of resending his handwriting samples to match it with the writings on the derogatory posters at Bargari village to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Chandigarh. During the July 9 hearing the court had taken up Sukhjinder’s plea and restrained the SIT from submitting a chargesheet. The restraining order was lifted after his plea was dismissed. On June 1 this year, the SIT collected samples of Sukhjinder to match them with the writing on the derogatory posters, claiming that one of the posters was written by him. The CFSL report is pending. SIT probing three interlinked sacrilege cases The SIT led by then deputy inspector general (DIG) Ranbir Singh Khatra had in 2018 found that the handwriting of the dera followers matched with the ones on the posters. But the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in its closure report filed in a Mohali court in July 2019, said the handwriting samples of the accused dera followers it had sent to the CFSL in Delhi did not match with the ones on the posters. The SIT, led by inspector general, border range, SPS Parmar, is probing three interlinked sacrilege cases. The first case pertains to the theft of the “bir” from Burj Jawahar Singh Wala near Kotkapura in Faridkot district on June 1, 2015. The second is the putting up of derogatory posters at Bargari village on September 25, 2015, and the third is the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib as torn pages of the “bir” were found scattered in front of a gurdwara at Bargari on October 12, 2015.

Hindustan Times

20-07-2021

Chandigarh