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Bargari sacrilege: Court issues arrest warrants against 3 dera national committee members
Have already been declared proclaimed offenders in three other sacrilege cases as police have failed to nab them since 2018
The court of judicial magistrate, Faridkot, on Friday issued non-bailable arrest warrants against three absconding members of Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda’s national committee, who were named accused in two Bargari sacrilege cases by the Punjab Police’s special investigation team (SIT).
Seeking arrest warrants of three Haryana residents — Sandeep Bareta, Pardeep Kler and Harsh Dhuri — the SIT claimed that sacrilege was committed on their direction.
They have already been declared proclaimed offenders (PO) in three other sacrilege cases as police have failed to nab them since 2018 when they were first named in cases connected to sacrilege incidents in Moga and Bathinda districts in 2015.
Judicial magistrate Tarjani adjourned the hearing of the case to July 30. If the police failed to nab them, the court will initiate a proceeding to declare them POs in two cases wherein torn pages of a “bir” (copy of Guru Granth Sahib) were found scattered in Bargari and three derogatory posters were put up near gurdwaras at Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala villages.
The SIT said two derogatory posters were pasted near the Bargari gurdwara on the intervening night of September 24 and 25, 2015, by the accused dera followers on their directions. “Later, on their directions, pages of the “bir”, which was stolen from a gurdwara at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala on June 1, 2015, were scattered at Bargari on October 12, 2015,” said SIT.
Dera committee members missing link in case
The three absconding members of the dera’s national committee are the missing link in three sacrilege incidents that sparked off state-wide protests in 2015. The teams probing the cases claim that the instructions to execute sacrilege at Bargari (Faridkot), Malke (Moga) and Gurusar (Bathinda) were given by Bareta, Kler and Dhuri to the district dera committee members.
In July 2020, The SIT had named Breta, Kler and Dhuri as accused in a case relating to the theft of a “bir” from a gurdwara on June 1, 2015. On October 12, 2015, torn pages of the “bir” were found scattered in front of a gurdwara at Bargari village. Torn pages of Guru Granth Sahib were also found at Malke village in Moga district in November 2015 and Gurusar (Bhagta) village in Bathinda district in October 2015.
“The trio had met Mohinder Pal Bittu, who was killed in Nabha jail in 2019, and instructed him to steal the bir. Similarly, in Moga sacrilege case, they gave instructions to dera state committee members Pirthi Singh and Jatindervir, alias Jimmy, after which sacrilege was done by a dera follower at Malke and Gurusar villages,” said an SIT official.
