The Punjab home department has given a sanction to the special investigation team (SIT) probing the 2015 sacrilege incidents to prosecute six Dera Sacha Sauda followers named as accused in two cases registered in connection with the Bargari sacrilege incidents that took place in 2015.
The prosecution was sanctioned under Section 196 (prosecution for offences against the State and for criminal conspiracy) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) against Sukhjinder Singh, alias Sunny, Nishan Singh, Ranjit Singh, alias Bhola, and Pardeep Kumar, all residents of Kotkapura; Shakti Singh of Daggu Romana village and Baljit Singh of Sikhanwala village in Faridkot district in the FIR-128 registered at the Bajakhana police station on October 12, 2015 after torn pages of a bir (copy of Guru Grabth Sahib) was found near gurudwara at Bargari village.
Also, the department sanctioned prosecution against Sukhjinder, Shakti, Ranjit and Baljit in the FIR-117 registered on September 25, 2015, after another sacrilege incident wherein three derogatory posters were pasted near gurdwaras at Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala villages.
Additional chief secretary (home affairs and justice) Anurag Aggarwal said he inspected the case files, including the report submitted under section 173 of the CrPc and statements of the witnesses recorded under section 161 of the CrPc. “I am fully satisfied that Sukhjinder, Shakti, Nishan, Baljeet, Ranjit and Pardeep committed offences under sections 295 (destroying, damaging or defiling any place of worship, or any object held sacred), 295-A (malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information), 120-B (being party to a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence) and 153-A (promoting enmity between groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence or language etc) of the Indian Penal Code.”
{{/usCountry}}Additional chief secretary (home affairs and justice) Anurag Aggarwal said he inspected the case files, including the report submitted under section 173 of the CrPc and statements of the witnesses recorded under section 161 of the CrPc. “I am fully satisfied that Sukhjinder, Shakti, Nishan, Baljeet, Ranjit and Pardeep committed offences under sections 295 (destroying, damaging or defiling any place of worship, or any object held sacred), 295-A (malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information), 120-B (being party to a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence) and 153-A (promoting enmity between groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence or language etc) of the Indian Penal Code.”
{{/usCountry}}“Being the competent authority, I grant permission to prosecute all the six accused under sections 295-A and 153-A of the IPC in both cases,” he added.
On May 16 this year, the SIT led by inspector general of police (border range) Surinder Pal Singh Parmar had arrested the six sect followers in connection with the Bargari sacrilege episode. Later, Sukhjinder, Shakti, Ranjit and Baljeet were named as accused in the derogatory posters case. The SIT filed chargesheet against them in both the cases this month. The probe team has also nominated three members of dera’s national committee — Sandeep Bareta, Pardeep Kler and Harsh Dhuri – as conspirators in both the cases.