Bargari sacrilege: Police get 4-day remand of six dera followers, claim links to sacrilege cases

Till date, the special investigation team has arrested seven dera followers who were rounded up last week from various locations.

As police claimed they needed to recover evidences from six arrested followers of Dera Sacha Sauda in a case of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib at Bargari three years ago, besides other similar incidents, a local court sent them in remand for four days on Tuesday.

One of the arrested followers of Dera Sacha Sauda who were sent to four-day police remand, at CJM court in Moga on Tuesday. (HT Photo)

The police produced the six men (Sukhjinder Singh, Nishan Singh and Ranjit Singh of Kotkapura, and Randeep Singh, Shakti Singh and Baljit Singh of Faridkot) in a case of damage to public property in 2011 registered at the Moga police station. Punjab Police’s special investigation team (SIT) claimed before the court of chief judicial magistrate Bikramjeet Singh that the men have crucial information about other sacrilege incidents that took place in recent years in Punjab. The SIT then took the men to Jagraon (Ludhiana) for further investigation.

The SIT had produced Mohinder Pal Bittu in the Moga court on Monday in the same case, and he too was sent in police remand till June 16. On March 7, 2011, around 200 followers of the Sirsa-headquartered dera, led by Bittu, blocked the Moga-Kotkapura road, damaged vehicles and also thrashed commuters, as per the case.

Till date, the SIT has arrested seven dera followers who were rounded up last week from various locations. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the sacrilege cases, is also camping in the state.

The sacrilege incident had triggered a statewide outrage after a ‘bir’ (copy of Guru Granth Sahib) was stolen from a gurdwara at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala on June 1, 2015. On October 12, 2015, torn pages of the ‘bir’ were found scattered in front of a gurdwara at Bargari village.