E-Paper
Dera chief’s name dropped from sacrilege FIR, says jathedar; SIT rebuts claim
Probe team says sect head was named as accused in FIR on theft of a ‘bir’ from the Burj Jawahar Singh Wala gurdwara
Akal Takht acting jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh on Wednesday accused the special investigation team (SIT) probing the 2015 sacrilege incidents of dropping the name of Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh from an FIR in one of the desecration cases.
The SIT, however, denied the charge saying the Sirsa-based sect chief was not named in the case and it did not give a clean chit to anyone.
Addressing a press conference in Amritsar, the jathedar of the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhism, said the probe team filed a chargesheet pertaining to FIR number 128 in a Faridkot court a few days ago.
“It is surprising that the SIT, which filed a challan regarding the FIR number 128, removed the name of Dera Sacha Sauda chief from the case. It raises suspicion. There is politics at play. We have been saying there should not be politics over this issue,” he claimed.
“Why his name (dera chief) was removed quietly? Is it for taking mileage in the 2022 assembly polls?” he asked. He demanded that the dera head be brought to Punjab from a Haryana jail and be questioned about the sacrilege incident. Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is serving a 20-year jail term in a Haryana jail for raping two of his women disciples in his ‘ashram’. He was convicted in August 2017 by a special CBI court in Panchkula.
The FIR pertains to finding of torn pages of the Guru Granth Sahib at Bargari on October 12, 2015 and it was registered at the Bajakhana police station in Faridkot.
‘Probe in cases moving fast’
SIT head SPS Parmar asserted the investigation in the cases is moving fast in the right direction. He denied giving a clean chit to Gurmeet Ram Rahim or anyone else, rejecting the claims as “malicious social media propaganda”.
Parmar said nobody is above the law and if evidence is found against anyone at any point during the ongoing investigations, due action would be initiated against such persons as per the law of the land.
Investigations into the three cases pertaining to Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala are still open, Parmar underlined.
He said as per challan of FIR number 128, it is clearly mentioned that if and when any evidence comes against anyone in these desecration cases, they shall be brought to book and supplementary challans shall be presented against those who figure at any point during the ongoing investigation.
Parmar said the Dera Sacha Sauda head was named as accused in FIR number 63, which pertains to theft of a ‘bir’ (copy) of Guru Granth Sahib from the Burj Jawahar Singh Wala gurdwara.
In this case too, the investigation is underway by the same SIT and nobody has been given clean chit, he said.
On July 9, the SIT filed its first chargesheet against six dera followers in a case of desecration. The six accused who were arrested were Sukhjinder Singh, alias Sunny; Shakti Singh; Ranjit Singh, alias Bhola; Baljit Singh; Nishan Singh; and Pardeep Singh. They were arrested in May.
In February this year, the CBI on the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court had handed over the documents and files related to the 2015 incidents to the Punjab Police SIT. The previous SAD-BJP government had handed over the three cases -- theft of a ‘bir’ (copy) of the Guru Granth Sahib from a Burj Jawahar Singh Wala gurdwara; putting up of handwritten sacrilegious posters in Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala; and torn pages of the holy book found at Bargari-- to the CBI.
The Punjab government had handed over the probe to an SIT in September 2018 after the state assembly passed a resolution withdrawing consent to the CBI to probe these cases.
