Ram Rahim prosecution: Dera demands independent probe

A day after the Aam Aadmi Party-led Punjab government granted sanction to prosecute Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in three interlinked sacrilege cases of Faridkot, the sect demanded an investigation by an “independent agency” in the cases claiming that the dera head had no role.
Dera spokesperson and advocate Jatinder Khurana said the allegations of sacrilege against dera head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh are false and baseless. “The dera head had no role in the sacrilege incidents and he cannot commit such sin as he respects all religions. Dera Sacha Sauda has always strongly condemned the incidents of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib ji. We demand that an impartial investigation should be conducted by an independent agency and real culprits should be brought to the fore instead of implicating the dera in this as part of a conspiracy.”
On Monday, the state home department had sanctioned prosecution under Section 196 (prosecution for offences against the state and for criminal conspiracy to commit such offence) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) against dera head Ram Rahim and three national committee members of dera Pardeep Kler, Harsh Dhuri and Sandeep Bareta in three interlinked sacrilege cases linked to Bargari sacrilege.
The sacrilege events began on June 1, 2015, when a “bir” (copy) of the Guru Granth Sahib was stolen from the Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village gurdwara. Three derogatory posters threatening sacrilege were pasted at Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala villages between September 24 and 25, 2015. On October 12, 2015, torn pages of the “bir” were found scattered in front of a gurdwara in the adjoining Bargari village, resulting in an outrage across the state.
Dera head hatched conspiracy for revenge: SIT final report
In April 2022 around seven years after the Bargari sacrilege incident, SIT head ADGP SPS Parmar in his final report found no political involvement and concluded that the crime was committed following a conspiracy by dera followers on the directions of dera head for revenge. CM Mann had handed over the report to Sikh community leader.
The SIT probing the sacrilege cases claims to have found that the instructions to execute the sacrilege at Bargari, Moga and Gurusar were given by Bareta, Kler and Dhuri, to the district dera committee members. “The trio had met dera follower Mohinder Pal Bittu (who was killed in Nabha jail) and instructed him to steal the “bir” and commit sacrilege,” SIT claimed.