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SIT finds no political link in 2015 Bargari sacrilege cases
The SIT led by Inspector General of Police SPS Parmar investigated the three cases linked to the Bargari sacrilege incident and submitted its report to the state DGP on April 21. HT has seen a copy of the report. Naming Gurmeet Ram Rahim as the accused in the three desecration incidents, the SIT report said the motive “is having a direct link with the Dera Sacha Sauda and the accused persons who are involved in these cases are followers of the said dera.”
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The special investigation team probing the 2015 Bargari sacrilege case has pinned the blame on Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, and said there was no political involvement in the desecration that triggered violent protests across Punjab.
Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday handed over the 467-page SIT report to Sikh community leaders, including Chamkaur Singh and Major Singh Pandori, officials said.
The SIT led by Inspector General of Police SPS Parmar investigated the three cases linked to the Bargari sacrilege incident and submitted its report to the state DGP on April 21. HT has seen a copy of the report.
Naming Gurmeet Ram Rahim as the accused in the three desecration incidents, the SIT report said the motive “is having a direct link with the Dera Sacha Sauda and the accused persons who are involved in these cases are followers of the said dera.”
“It is evident from material/evidence collected by the SIT of the Punjab Police that the accused were having direct nexus with the management of the dera. The motive behind the incidents was also having a link with the movie ‘MSG-2’,” the SIT report said.
The incidents related to the theft of a ‘bir’ (copy) of the Guru Ganth Sahib, putting up handwritten sacrilegious posters and torn pages of the holy book found scattered at Bargari had taken place in Faridkot in 2015.
These incidents led to protests in Faridkot. In the police firing at protesters in October 2015, two people were killed in Behbal Kalan while some people were injured at Kotkapura in Faridkot.
The SIT submitted its final investigation report based on comprehensive and in-depth investigation of all three cases of sacrilege, Parmar said.
“The SIT collected irrefutable material and circumstantial evidence and named 12 accused, including Ram Rahim, and filed chargesheets against them in these cases. We have completed our investigation as evidence leads to no further involvement in these cases,” he said.
Several Sikh outfits and political parties, including the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), had placed the blame on Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Badal and former Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal for the incidents. The final report, however, does not mention any involvement by the then SAD-BJP government, or the Badals.
Last year, the Central Bureau of Investigation handed over the documents and files related to the 2015 incidents to the Punjab Police SIT on the directions of the Punjab and Haryana high court. In 2015, the then SAD-BJP government had handed over the three cases to the CBI for probe.
The Punjab government had handed over the probe to an SIT of the state police in September 2018 after the state Assembly passed a resolution withdrawing consent to the CBI to investigate these cases, noting lack of progress in the investigation.
