Iqbal Singh threatens legal recourse over expulsion from Takht Patna Sahib

GS Paul 
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, March 6

A day after he was unceremoniously removed from the position of ‘Jathedar’ of Takht Patna Sahib, Giani Iqbal Singh on Wednesday threatened to take legal course of action against the managing board of the Takht and “others involved in humiliating him”.

“I would be left with no option but to knock at the door of court. There is a valid provision and I would not hesitate to approach the Supreme Court to get justice. I will file defamation case against those who conspired to tarnish my image,” he said. 

Iqbal Singh alleged that the former Jathedars of other Takhts, referring to the then Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh and Takht Talwandi Sabo Jathedar Giani Gurmukh Singh, had tempered with the controversial Dera head Gurmeet Ram Rahim’s apology letter sent to Akal Takht in September 2015. 

Ironically, Iqbal Singh was one of the signatories of the controversial flip-flop on pardoning the Sirsa Dera head. He has raised the issue at a time when the Special Investigation Team (SIT) is probing the Behbal Kalan and Kotakpura firing incidents of October 2015. Some high-level police officials have already been nabbed recently and Giani Gurbachan Singh too was on the radar of SIT to establish the ‘possible’ connection between the pardon and series of sacrilege incidents leading to police firing. 

Talking to The Tribune, Giani Iqbal Singh claimed that the Dera head never submitted an apology but it was later converted by including the word “Khima Da Jachak” over his signatures by the then Takht heads on the directions of their political bosses. 

“I was not aware of their ‘hidden agenda’ before signing the edict. As I lived out of station and reached Akal Takht at the eleventh hour. I was misguided and made to sign the edict on the pretext that it would help bring solace to the unrest Sikh community. When it backfired, it was revoked,” he said. 

He demanded that Akal Takht jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh, who formed a seven-member probe committee to scrutinise the allegations against him and directed the Takht board to remove him, should equally probe the truth of the pardon episode. 

“Why was the Dera head pardoned despite the fact that he never submitted an apology? Who brought his letter to Akal Takht which was later edited on the directions of political leaders? Later, advertisements worth Rs 90 lakh were got published in newspapers to justify it. I demand that truth should prevail and Giani Hapreet Singh should summon the guilty Jathedars at Akal Takht too,” he said. 

Giani Harpreet Singh had directed the seven-member probe panel to include two members from Takht Patna Sahib management board also to conduct fresh inquiry into the allegations against Giani Iqbal Singh who could be summoned to Akal Takht, if found guilty of bigamy and violation of Sikh ‘rehat maryada’. “These grounds were being made to humiliate me further,” he said.