E-Paper
Derogatory posters at Bargari: SIT sends dera man’s handwriting sample to forensic lab again
The special investigation team (SIT) probing the sacrilege cases has resent the handwriting sample of an accused Dera Sacha Sauda follower to match it with the writings on derogatory posters pasted at Faridkot district’s Bargari village in September 2015 after the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Chandigarh, returned it with objections
The special investigation team (SIT) probing the sacrilege cases has resent the handwriting sample of an accused Dera Sacha Sauda follower to match it with the writings on derogatory posters pasted at Faridkot district’s Bargari village in September 2015 after the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Chandigarh, returned it with objections.
The SIT had again collected samples of Sukhjinder Singh, alias Sunny, the accused, in the first week of June. The derogatory posters were against Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy book.
“There are some standard guidelines for collecting the samples, as was conveyed by the forensic lab. The SIT is careful enough to avoid any legal issue as small technicalities can be challenged in court at a later stage,” said an officer privy to the development.
The SIT-led by inspector general of police (IGP) Surinder Pal Singh Parmar has arrested four dera followers, claiming the posters were pasted by them at the behest of the sect’s three national committee members.
The six persons, including the four, arrested for the Bargari sacrilege were produced in court through video conferencing on Monday. Their judicial custody was extended to July 8.
In the three posters that appeared at Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala villages on September 24-25, 2015, it was threatened that the ‘bir’ of Guru Granth Sahib stolen from Burj Jawahar Singh Wala on June 1 that year would be torn if the dera chief (now jailed) Gurmeet Ram Rahim-starrer film Messenger of God (MSG)-2 was not allowed to be released in Punjab.
The SIT-led then deputy inspector general (DIG) Ranbir Singh Khatra in 2018 claimed that the handwriting of the accused dera followers had matched with the one on the posters. But the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in its closure report filed in a Mohali court in July 2019 had said the handwriting samples of the accused dera followers it had sent to the CFSL in Delhi did not match with the ones on the posters.
