Tribune News Service
Chandigarh/Faridkot, May 23
Almost eight years after the 2015 Bargari sacrilege incidents in Faridkot, one of many primary conspirators, Sandeep Bareta, was arrested from the Bengaluru airport as we speak.
Bareta was a member of the nationwide government committee of the Dera Sacha Sauda headed by Gurmeet Ram Rahim. He had been absconding for the previous eight years together with two different dera members Pardeep Kaler and Harsh Dhuri. All three had been declared proclaimed offenders within the Burj Jawahar Ke and Bargari sacrilege circumstances in 2020.
Wanted in three circumstances
- The first case pertains to the theft of ‘Guru Granth Sahib’ from a gurdwara at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village on June 1, 2015
- The second case is said to pasting of two posters that includes derogatory remarks in opposition to the Sikh faith and Gurus at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala on September 25, 2015
- The third incident dates to October 12, 2015, when torn pages of ‘Guru Granth Sahib’ had been discovered exterior a gurdwara at Bargari village
Their arrest assumes significance as he was linked to the dera authorities and may need inside info on the incidents.
The arrest earlier than the eighth anniversary of the incidents could cool tempers of quite a few organisations, which have been staging protests looking for their arrest. A Punjab Police workforce have taken his custody from the Bengaluru police. The workforce is bringing him to Punjab.
Dera head named in SIT report
- An SIT led by IG SPS Parmar had, in its 467-page report, blamed Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim and the three POs for hatching the conspiracy to hold out the sacrilege incidents
- Recently, the dera head had courted controversy after he obtained two back-to-back paroles and was launched from Sunaria jail in Rohtak
ADGP Surinderpal Singh, who heads the Special Investigation Team, probing the three sacrilege incidents, stated, “A workforce of the Faridkot police has left for Bengaluru. Bareta might be produced earlier than a court docket in Faridkot.”
The Punjab Police had issued a Look-Out Circular in opposition to Bareta to cease him from leaving the nation by means of designated land, air and sea ports.
Members of the nationwide committee had allegedly directed the block committee to execute sacrilegious acts after some dera followers at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village eliminated their “sacred” threads and lockets reportedly below the affect of a Sikh preacher.
In April 2020, seven individuals had been arrested by the SIT and one of many accused Mohinder Pal Bittu was killed at Nabha jail in June 2019.
While the dera head is lodged at Sunaria jail in Rohtak after his conviction in a rape case, Bareta, Kaler and Dhuri had been on the run.
According to the SIT, the accused together with the dera head had been behind the theft of ‘bir’, which led to Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura police firing incidents.