Sacrilege cases: Panel submits report to CM

CHANDIGARH : The Justice Ranjit Singh (retd) Commission, constituted to investigate sacrilege cases in the state, on Saturday submitted its final report on the Bargari sacrilege incident and the resulting police firing at Behbal Kalan, as part of its first set of findings, to chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh.

The report handed over to the CM in a sealed cover has been forwarded to the state home secretary and the advocate general for examination in a time-bound manner so that the guilty can be brought to book at the earliest, said an official spokesperson.

The commission was constituted in April 2017 under Section 11 of the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952, by the Amarinder-led Congress government to probe cases of desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib and other religious texts at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala, Bargari, Gurusar and Mallke after rejecting as “inconclusive” the findings of the Zora Singh Commission set up by the previous SAD-BJP government.

The sacrilege incidents led to massive protests in different parts of the state and at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura, two people were killed in police firing.

The commission had a mandate to inquire into the detailed facts and circumstances and chronology of events of what actually happened and to identify as a matter of fact the role played by various persons into the incidents of sacrilege in Faridkot and other places.