Badals should explain how dera chief escaped 2007 blasphemy case: Pargat
› Had the Akali-BJP govt acted sternly against the dera chief for dressing like Guru Gobind Singh in 2007, then there would have been no sacrilege in 2015 PARGAT SINGH, Congress MLA from Jalandhar
JALANDHAR: Congress MLA from Jalandhar cantonment Pargat Singh has claimed that it was cancellation report filed by the Bathinda police against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in the 2007 blasphemy case that led him to commit further heinous crimes like sacrilege. His statement comes amid ongoing heated allegations and counter-allegations between the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Congress party over action against Rahim.
“Had the Akali-BJP government acted sternly against the dera chief for dressing like Guru Gobind Singh in 2007, then there would be no sacrilege of 2015,” the former hockey Olympian said, adding that the Akali patriarch and former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son, president of the SAD, Sukhbir Singh Badal, should answer truthfully, the people of Punjab, especially the Sikh community, on how Ram Rahim escaped from the blasphemy case.
“If the Badals had acted against the dera chief in the 2007 case then he would not have dared to commit the sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib. The Sikh community should connect the dots of sacrilege incidents and 2007 case, how the Badals saved the dera chief and how he committed the heinous act of sacrilege in the 2015,” Pargat, who has also been an Akali MLA, said.
He added that was surprising that the matter of the origin of the dress that Ram Rahim wore was not investigated properly in 2007.
“The matter would have been cleared, if the case was investigated in 2007, when Parkash Singh Badal was the chief minister; the police department was working under him till 2009 and not even a charge-sheet was filed in the case,” he said.
He also accused the Badals of hobnobbing with the Dera Sacha Sauda for the sake of votes during 2009 Lok Sabha polls, 2012 assembly polls and 2014 Lok Sabha polls.