Sacrilege cases in Punjab: Cops to take key accused to Dera Sacha Sauda

Faridkot, February 20

On getting remand of Pardeep Kaler, a key accused in the 2015 sacrilege cases, for four more days today, the police plan to take Kaler to Sacha Sauda Dera at Sirsa to recreate the sequence of the alleged hatching of the conspiracy to desecrate Guru Granth Sahib. Kaler was arrested on February 10 from Gurugram.

After the end of Kaler’s four-day police remand today, the Faridkot police produced him again in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Chandigarh, and got his remand for four more days.

After getting many vital clues during the questioning of Kaler during the past four days, the police plan to take him to Sirsa dera where the conspiracies were allegedly hatched, said a police officer privy to the investigation.

It is alleged that Pardeep Kaler, Sandeep Bareta and Harsh Dhuri had held a meeting with dera head Gurmeet Ram Rahim at the dera to hatch a conspiracy. It was executed by some members of the dera at Burj Jawahar Singh and Bargari villages of Faridkot.

“Taking Kaler to the place where the conspiracy was hatched is very important for the proper identification of the spot to take this case to a logical conclusion in court,” said the police officer.

While Kaler is facing three sacrilege cases in Faridkot, the police have got his remand in one case which relates to the theft of Guru Granth Sahib ‘bir’ from a gurdwara at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village on June 1, 2015.

Two other cases relate to pasting of posters with derogatory remarks against the Sikh religion and Gurus on September 25, 2015, at a gurdwara in Burj Jawahar Singh Wala and Bargari and the incident of October 12, 2015, when torn pages of Guru Granth Sahib were found outside a gurdwara at Bargari village.

The police had named eight persons in these cases and three accused—Kaler, Sandeep Bareta and Harsh Dhuri—were on the run. Kaler was arrested on February 10 from Gurugram.

Shift Amritpal from Assam jail to state, parents urge govt

Amritsar: Parents of Amritpal Singh, head of Waris Punjab De, and their supporters served a 24-hour ultimatum to the state government through the DC here, demanding to get their son and nine other detainees shifted to any Punjab jail from Assam’s Dibrugarh jail for their safety. After coming out of the camp office of DC Ghanshaym Thori today, Balwinder Kaur, mother of Amritpal, said non-compliance of their demand by the government would force them to hold a protest. She said that the DC assured them that he would intimate the Home Secretary about the matter within two hours. TNS