Victim directly involved in Bargari sacrilege

Pardeep was an accused in two cases of sacrilege after a ‘bir’ of Guru Granth Sahib was stolen from Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village on June 1, 2015, and after torn pages of a ‘bir’ were found scattered near Bargari gurdwara on October 12, 2015. He was granted bail in the sacrilege cases on August 3, 2021.

Punjab Police special investigation team (SIT), led by inspector general of police SPS Parmar, named him an accused in both cases and presented chargesheets against dera head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and followers, including Pardeep. SIT in chargesheet claimed that Pardeep has confessed that torn pages of ‘bir’ were handed over to Pardeep by two other accused and Bittu had tasked him to scatter it on Hari Nau road in Kotkapura. “But he got scared and threw the pages. Pardeep is the seventh dera follower to have been shot dead since the sacrilege incidents of 2015 in Faridkot district. Others murdered are Gurdev Singh on June 13, 2016; Sat Pal Sharma and his son Ramesh Kumar Sharma of Jaghera village, Khanna, on February 25, 2017; Mohinder Pal Bittu in Nabha Jail on January 23, 2019; Manohar Lal, who is father of an accused of sacrilege at Bhagta Bhai Ke village in Bathinda, on January 20, 2020; and Charan Dass, who was accused in a sacrilege case in Muktsar, at Bhunder village in Muktsar on December 3, 2021.

Pardeep is the third dera follower directly linked to the Bargari sacrilege cases to have been killed. The SIT found that Gurdev Singh, who used to run a shop outside the gurdwara at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala, was involved in the theft of the ‘bir’. Bittu was involved in all three desecration cases linked with the Bargari sacrilege.