Bargari sacrilege: CBI grills dera followers

MOGA:A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team on Monday grilled 10 Dera Sirsa Sauda followers, including the alleged main conspirator Mohinder Pal Bittu, in the Bargari sacrilege cases at the crime investigation agency (CIA) office in Moga.

During the six-hour questioning, the central agency posed questions to the accused on the basis of the findings of the special investigation team (SIT) formed by the Punjab government to probe the cases.

The CBI is probing three cases — a ‘bir’ (copy of Guru Granth Sahib) stolen from Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village in Kotkapura of Faridkot on June 1, 2015, a poster pasted at Bargari village in the district on September 25, 2015, and sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib at the same village on October 12, 2015.

SIT is probing two cases of sacrilege — torn pages of Guru Granth Sahib which were found at Malke village in Moga district in November 2015 and Gurusar (Bhagta) village in Bathinda district in October that year.

SIT had rounded up Bittu in these two cases but later it emerged the he was also the main conspirator in the 2011 Moga rioting and Bargari sacrilege cases.

Punjab director general of police Suresh Arora said the Punjab police are providing the CBI team full access to the suspects and will continue to do so.

“A team of officers from CBI reached Moga on Sunday and started taking the information on record and is proceeding with further probe,” said Arora.

A CBI spokesperson said their team will cross-check all evidences against the dera followers and follow the due process in the case.

On Monday, the Moga police produced in court another dera follower Sandeep Kumar of Kotkapura in the 2011 rioting case and got his one-day remand.

SIT had claimed it has been focusing on the recovery of weapons that the dera provided to accused during the Bargari sacrilege incidents.