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Bargari sacrilege: Accused dera followers seek CBI probe papers
Dera Sacha Sauda followers file application in court, claim prosecution did not furnish various documents
Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda followers, who are accused in the 2015 Bargari sacrilege case, have sought copies of the probe documents of sacrilege cases handed over by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to the Punjab police Special Investigation Team (SIT).
Sukhjinder Singh, alias Sunny, Nishan Singh, Ranjit Singh, alias Bhola, and Pardeep Kumar, Shakti Singh and Baljit Singh filed an application in the court on Wednesday claiming that the prosecution has not furnished various documents, including the documents handed over by the CBI along with the chargesheet.
They have asked for CBI’s handwriting and fingerprints reports of the CFSL lab along with specimen handwriting of the accused taken by the CBI. Further, they demanded the statements of witnesses recorded by the CBI under Section 161 of CrPC and all other documents obtained by the central agency during the investigation in the final report.
In July, the SIT probing three 2015 sacrilege cases had filed a nine-point opinion on the closure report of the CBI to negate the clean chit given to dera followers in sacrilege cases. The CBI had concluded that no clue leading to the detection of these three cases could be found. “No eyewitness could be found,” it had said.
The handwriting samples of accused Sukhjinder were sent by the CBI to the CFSL lab, which did not match with the ones on the derogatory posters pasted at Bargari in 2015.
The SIT, however, has claimed that from peculiar facts and circumstances, it is evident that the CBI has overlooked certain relevant and important aspects. “The motive behind these three cases is having a direct link with Dera Sacha Sauda and the accused in these cases are dera followers,” the SIT claims.
In June, the SIT had sent Sukhjinder’s fresh handwriting samples to the CFSL lab to match with the derogatory posters. However, the report is awaited.
Apart from the CBI documents, dera followers have also asked the court to direct the prosecution to produce photographs of holy angs (torn pages of bir of Guru Granth Sahib), recording and transcripts of phone calls of Rupinder Singh and Jaswinder Singh. They also sought a copy of the application of discharge of Rupinder and Jaswinder.
Advocate Vinod Monga, counsel of dera followers, told the court that these documents were essential for the trial of this case and those go deep into the matter to prove the innocence of the accused.
The court proceedings were scheduled to frame charges against the accused in the Bargari sacrilege case in the court of judicial magistrate Tarjani on Wednesday. However, the matter was adjourned to October 27 for arguments on the application filed by the accused seeking documents.
On October 20, 2015, then Punjab Bureau of Investigation chief additional director general of police (now DGP) Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota had announced that they have cracked the Bargari sacrilege case with the arrest of two persons. Sahota-led SIT arrested two Sikh youth, Rupinder Singh and Jaswinder Singh, both residents of Panjgrain village in Faridkot, concluding that the two brothers were in touch with someone in Australia and their funding by “foreign-based handlers” has been established. It also claimed to have intercepted their calls to handlers in Dubai and Australia. Audio clips of telephonic conversations between Rupinder and his foreign handler and Rupinder and Jaswinder, who was using his relative Gurbachan Singh’s number, were also shared.
However, the SIT theory came under question the next day following media reports that the “foreign handlers” named in the case were ordinary NRIs who sent money to Rupinder and Jaswinder to fund the anti-sacrilege protest in Bargari.
