Amidst pressure by Sikh protestors seeking release of two brothers arrested in sacrilege incidents, and sharp criticism of the Punjab Police for its failure to handle the sensitive matter, the Punjab Government on Sunday finally decided to hand over the probe into three sacrilege incidents at Faridkot to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Sources informed The Pioneer that the State Government has "officially" recommended the Faridkot sacrilege and firing incident to the CBI under section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act.
The Government's decision to hand over the probe of all three sacrilege cases of Faridkot to the CBI was taken by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in a high-level meeting held on Sunday evening.
The meeting was attended by senior Government and police officials, including the State Director General of Police Suresh Arora, State Intelligence chief, senior Akali and BJP leaders including MP Prem Singh Chandumajra, among others. The decision came after the probe, initiated by the Punjab Police, went "inconclusive" on the involvement of two baptised Sikh brothers who were arrested on October 20.
Available information suggest that the CBI investigation will be in regard to the three FIRs — FIR no 63 filed at Jwahar Singh Wala village regarding theft of Guru Granth Sahib, FIR no 117 at Bajakhana village regarding pasting of handbills showing disrespect to Guru Granth Sahib and hurting religious feelings, and FIR no 128 at Bargadi village regarding sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib bir.
Sikh protestors and panthic leaders have all along been demanding the release of two accused in the Bargari case of desecration of Guru Granth Sahib. Police had, on October 21, arrested brothers Rupinder Singh and Jaswinder Singh from Panjgrain Khurd claiming them to be responsible for the incident, citing recorded mobile phone conversations as proof of their involvement. Police had also indicated at the "foreign hand and funding" in the series of sacrilege incidents in the State.
Panthic leaders, residents of Panjgrain Khurd village and even the "foreign handlers" rejected police theory alleging that the two brothers had been framed by police. The Panthic leaders have also been demanding the unconditional release of the "baptised" brothers.
It has been learnt that the Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted by the Chief Minister to investigate the matter, has failed to reach any conclusion in the absence of any substantiative evidence to further its claims in the Bargari case.
Punjab was on boil since October 12 when the first incident of desecration of "bir" copy of Guru Granth Sahib was reported from Bargari village
in Faridkot district, sharing its border with Pakistan. As many as 110 pages of Guru Granth Sahib, stolen from the Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village in June, were found torn off outside a gurudwara.
Following this, seven more cases of sacrilege have been reported from other districts coupled with widespread protests across the state. During the protests, two Sikh protesters were killed in police firing on 14 October at Behbal Kalan village near Faridkot, besides many others got injured.
Seeing things going out of hand, the Centre deployed paramilitary forces in four districts - Amritsar, Jalandhar, Tarn Taran and ludhiana - to handle the tense situation.
The Punjab police, after arresting two brothers in the Bargari sacrilege case, claimed that the two were getting instructions and funding from the "foreign handlers" in Australia and Dubai. The police later focused its investigations on the "possible involvement of foreign elements" in fuelling turbulence in the state.
Amidst the mounting protests from the Sikh community, criticism by the opposition parties, and the failure of the Punjab police to handle the situation, the State Government had also transferred its high-profile state police chief Sumedh Singh Saini, with his 1982 batch mate Suresh Arora the previous Sunday.