CBI team quizzes Burj Jawahar Singh Wala granthi, two others

BARGARI SACRILEGE

More than three months after doing a U-turn on the closure report filed in a Mohali court, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), probing the politically and religiously sensitive 2015 Bargari sacrilege cases, is back in action.

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A six-member team of central agency on Tuesday visited Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village in Faridkot district where a “bir” (copy) of Guru Granth Sahib stolen from a gurdwara on June 1, 2015.

The team questioned granthi of Burj Jawahar Singh Wala gurdwara Gora Singh, cashier Pritam Kaur and Ranjit Singh for around two hours, but refused to divulge details.

“The CBI officials questioned me and cashier Pritam Kaur, they have also questioned one more person. They have asked questions related to the theft of Guru Granth Sahib from the gurdwara in 2015. I have given the same statement which the CBI recorded in the past. All the investigation agencies, including the CBI, have already questioned me in the past. I have provided them with all the information I have,” said granthi Gora Singh.

On July 4, the CBI filed a closure report in three cases of sacrilege — theft of a ‘bir’ of Guru Granth Sahib from a Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village on June 1, 2015, putting up of handwritten sacrilegious posters in Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala on September 25 and torn pages of ‘bir’ being found at Bargari on October 12. But on August 26, the CBI sought permission from a special CBI court to reopen probe in the Bargari sacrilege cases.

The CBI had cited the July 29 letter written by special DGP-cum-director bureau of investigation (BoI) Parbodh Kumar, requesting the CBI director to carry out the probe, citing a few “unanswered angles”, including the role of foreign agencies and the two Pakistani numbers which were active in Bargari during the sacrilege incidents.

The previous SAD-BJP government had handed over the Bargari sacrilege cases to the CBI in November 2015.