Dera follower arrested for Bathinda village sacrilege

: Police on Wednesday arrested a follower of Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda for sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib in Gurusar village near Bhagta Bhai Ka in 2015.

A police team arrested Jatinderbir Arora, alias Jimmy, of Bhagta Bhai Ka from Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi at 3pm. The accused had gone for honeymoon to Malaysia after solemnising marriage recently and was accompanied by his wife when police party nabbed. A lookout notice had already been issued against him in the case.

Arora was accused in the desecration case of Guru Granth Sahib at Gurusar village on October 20, 2015. As many as 157 pages of Guru Granth Sahib were found scattered at different places in the village, six days after the police action on anti-sacrilege protesters at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan in Faridkot. Arora is a member of state committee of the Dera Sacha Sauda.

Earlier, two men of the 45-member dera state committee were arrested in connection with the sacrilege cases. Mohinder Pal Bittu of Kotkapura was arrested in June this year for Bargari sacrilege while Pirthi Singh of Baghapurana in Moga was arrested for sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib at Mal Ke village in November 2015.

A case under Section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian penal Code (IPC) was registered against unidentified persons on the complaint of Iqbal Singh, president of the gurdwara management committee, at the Dialpura police station. Bathinda senior superintendent of police Nanak Singh said Arora’s involvement in the case was established during investigation by the special investigation team (SIT) constituted to probe 2015 sacrilege incidents in Bargari.

The pages of Guru Granth Sahib found scattered at Gurusar village were from the holy book stolen from a gurdwara in Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village in Faridkot in June 2015.

Deputy inspector general of police and SIT member Ranbir Singh Khatra said that a Rampura Phul court has remanded the accused to five-day police custody.

JATINDERBIR ARORA WAS NABBED AT IGI AIRPORT IN DELHI AFTER HE RETURNED FROM MALAYSIA