Court declares 3 dera national committee members POS
Move comes after four arrest warrants against the three Haryana residents returned ‘unexecuted’ in 2 desecration cases
FARIDKOT: A Faridkot court on Monday declared three members of the Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda’s national committee as proclaimed offenders (PO) in connection with the 2015 Bargari sacrilege cases.
Three Haryana residents — Sandeep Bareta, Pardeep Kaler and Harsh Dhuri — were declared POS after four arrest warrants against them returned unexecuted in two sacrilege cases wherein torn pages of a “bir” (copy of Guru Granth Sahib) were found scattered in Bargari and three derogatory posters were put up near gurdwaras at Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala villages in 2015.
“The police submitted that they received the proclamation of the accused and pasted the copies of notices at different places. The accused did not appear even as the statuary period of 30 days has expired. Therefore, this court declares Harsh Dhuri, Pardeep Kaler and Sandeep Bareta as proclaimed offenders,” said judicial magistrate Tarjani in her order.
The court also directed the station house officer (SHO) concerned to proceed against them under Section 174-A of the Indian Penal Code after registering an FIR. The matter was adjourned to October 11 for filing the list of property of all the accused under Section 83 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CRPC).
Naming the three as conspirators in the Bargari sacrilege and derogatory posters cases, the SIT had filed a challan in the court in July. Earlier, they were declared POS in three other sacrilege cases as the police failed to nab them since 2018 when they were first named in cases connected to sacrilege incidents in Moga and Bathinda districts in 2015. Bareta, Kler and Dhuri were also named as accused in the Malke and Gurusar cases.
Torn pages of Guru Granth Sahib were found at Malke village in Moga district in November 2015 and Gurusar (Bhagta) village in Bathinda district in October 2015. Last year, they were named as accused and later declared PO in the case of theft of a “bir” from a gurdwara at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village.
The police failed to submit the list of properties of the accused in “bir” theft case again on Monday after which the matter was adjourned to November 29.
The SIT probing the case claims that Bareta, Kler and Dhuri are the key link in Punjab’s five sacrilege incidents that sparked state-wide protests in 2015. “The instructions to execute sacrilege at Bargari, Moga and Gurusar were given by Bareta, Kler and Dhuri to the district dera committee members,” the SIT alleges.