SIT ‘recovers’ pages of holy book at dera follower’s house

MOGA : Punjab Police special investigation team (SIT), probing the three-year-old sacrilege incidents at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala and Bargari, on Monday claimed to have found some pages of Guru Granth Sahib from the house of a Dera Sacha Sauda follower at Daggu Romana village in Faridkot.

The SIT has also taken into possession a car and motorcycle from the dera follower’s house, suspecting that the vehicles might have been used in the 2015 sacrilege incidents.

A police official, who didn’t want to be named, said the pages of holy book were recovered from Shakti Singh’s house on Sunday. He said of the 12 persons rounded up by the SIT, the role of seven persons has been confirmed in the sacrilege incident. They include Mohinder Pal Bittu, the main conspirator, Sunny Kanda, Nishan Singh, Raju, Randeep Singh, Sandeep Kumar Bittu and Shakti Singh. “The police managed to reach Bittu and others through circumstances evidences such as sketches, call details and phone locations,” he said.

Shakti’s parents denied that police recovered pages of the holy book from their house. “They are trying to frame my son,” said Basant Singh, Shakti’s father.

SIT head deputy inspector general Ranbir Singh Khatra didn’t respond to repeated phone calls.

The sacrilege incident 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. A massive protest was held in June 2016 after a dera follower, Gurdev Singh, was gunned down at his shop at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village of Faridkot by an unidentified man.

State committee member of the dera Mohinder Pal Bittu, who is being dubbed as the main conspirator of the Bargari sacrilege, was on Monday sent to five-day police remand in a case of damage to public property registered against him in 2011 in Moga.