HC dismisses dera man’s plea against resending writing samples to lab

FARIDKOT : The Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday dismissed a Dera Sacha Sauda follower’s plea challenging the special investigation team’s move of resending his handwriting samples to match it with the writings on derogatory posters pasted at Faridkot’s Bargari village in September 2015 to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Chandigarh.

Sukhjinder Singh, alias Sunny, a Dera Sacha Sauda follower, moved an application in HC demanding that the SIT be stopped from re-examining his handwriting samples. Sukhjinder is among four accused in the case, besides Shakti Singh, Ranjit Singh and Baljeet Singh.

Three derogatory posters were pasted near gurdwaras of Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala villages in Faridkot district on the intervening night of September 24 and 25 in 2015. On July 9, the HC restrained the SIT probing the sacrilege cases from submitting a chargesheet (challan) against accused and the court reserved order for Monday.

The HC bench of justice HNS Gill said that indisputably the handwriting samples of the petitioner had been obtained by the probe team after the petitioner had given his consent in the presence of his counsel. “The petitioner’s counsel could not show as to what prejudice is caused to the rights of the petitioner by objecting to obtaining of his handwriting samples and sending them for comparison. Rather, by raising such an objection in the middle of the investigation, the petitioner is pre-empting his guilt,” he added.

“It may further be noticed that the earlier handwriting samples of the petitioner had been taken in FIR 63 and not in the present FIR 117. Thus, the prosecution cannot be restrained from obtaining writing samples. Besides, the order passed by the magistrate was never challenged by the petitioner,” the HC bench said dismissing the plea.

On June 1 this year, the SIT collected samples of Sukhjinder to match them with the writing on the posters claiming that one of them was written by him. In the three posters, it was threatened that the “bir” stolen from Burj Jawahar Singh Wala would be torn if the now jailed dera chief -starrer film Messenger of God (MSG)-2 was not allowed to be released in Punjab.