A Faridkot district court on Monday started proceedings to declare three members of the Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda’s national committee as proclaimed offenders (PO) in connection with 2015 Bargari sacrilege cases as the special investigation team (SIT) failed to nab them.
The court of judicial magistrate Tarjani initiated PO proceedings against three Haryana residents — Sandeep Bareta, Pardeep Kaler and Harsh Dhuri — after three arrest warrants against them in two sacrilege 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 in 2015, returned unexecuted.
“Non-bailable warrants issued against the accused since July 23 have remained unexecuted. They are evading the service or concealing themselves from the execution of non-bailable warrants. Now, proclamation under Section 82 of the CrPC be issued against them for September 20,” the judicial magistrate said.
Naming the three as conspirators in the Bargari sacrilege and derogatory posters cases, the SIT had filed a challan in the court last month. They have already been declared POs 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.
Bareta, Kler and Dhuri were also named as accused in the Malke and Gurusar cases. Torn pages of Guru Granth Sahib were found at Malke village in Moga district in November 2015 and Gurusar (Bhagta) village in Bathinda district in October 2015. Last year, they were named as accused in the “bir” theft case.
{{/usCountry}}Bareta, Kler and Dhuri were also named as accused in the Malke and Gurusar cases. Torn pages of Guru Granth Sahib were found at Malke village in Moga district in November 2015 and Gurusar (Bhagta) village in Bathinda district in October 2015. Last year, they were named as accused in the “bir” theft case.
{{/usCountry}}The SIT probing the case claims that Bareta, Kler and Dhuri are the key link in Punjab’s five sacrilege incidents that sparked state-wide protests in 2015. “The instructions to execute sacrilege at Bargari, Moga and Gurusar were given by Bareta, Kler and Dhuri to the district dera committee members,” say the SIT.
The SIT also claims that derogatory posters were pasted near the Bargari gurdwara on the intervening night of September 24 and 25, 2015, by dera followers on Bareta, Kler and Dhuri’s 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. They directed dera’s state committee member Mohinder Pal Bittu to steal a bir from gurdwara at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village,” claims the SIT.