Almost seven years after the torn pages of Sikhs’ holy book, Guru Granth Sahib, were found on the streets of Malke village in Moga district in 2015, a local court on Thursday sentenced three Dera Sacha Sauda followers to three-year jail in a sacrilege case.
While the two other accused have been acquitted, the Court of Judicial Magistrate First Class Rahul Garg also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 each of the three convicts — Pirthi Singh of Baghapurana, Mithu Mann and Amardeep of Malke village. The two other accused, also Dera followers, were Dalwinder Singh and Satnam Singh — acquitted for want of evidence.
In 2015, a case under Sections 295-A (intended to outrage religious feelings) and 295 (intent to insult the religion) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered against unidentified people at Samalsar police station. Punjab police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) had identified Prithi Singh, Mithu Singh and Amardeep Singh as accused.
The SIT had got vital clues about the involvement of these Dera followers in the case during interrogation of Prithi in the Bargari sacrilege case.
Three of the five persons named in the FIR have been convicted while two are acquitted. They have been awarded three years of imprisonment under section 295-A, and another three years under 120-B of IPC — which will run parallel.
Meanwhile, mlaming the previous governments for shielding accused of sacrilege cases by withholding proof against them, AAP leader and Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Cheema said that the Congress and Akali Dal never wanted to deliver justice to the people of Punjab in these sinful cases.
“Sacrilege case in Malke village reported in 2015 during SAD government, even Congress formed the government on the promise of delivering justice in it. However, they did nothing during their regimes. It is only the AAP government that ensured that the accused should get the punishment,” said Cheema.
Welcoming the judgement, Cheema said that the AAP government is committed to delivering justice to Punjabis in all sacrilege cases. “Congress and Akali Dal were in cahoots and have been covering up each other’s crimes for decades. But AAP government broke this nexus and now the accused will get exemplary punishments for their crimes,” he declared.
Claiming credit, he said that unlike the previous governments, AAP government speeded up the investigation in all sacrilege cases and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann personally ensured that these cases must be taken to logical ends.
WELCOMING CONVICTION, CONG MOCKS AAP FOR CLAIMING CREDIT
Welcoming the conviction in Moga sacrilege, Punjab Congress took a dig at AAP for claiming credit in getting the guilty punished, since it had no role in the entire process of investigation, prosecution, and trial of the case as everything was completed during the previous Congress regime.
Senior Congress leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said that that incident was reported during the Akali-BJP regime. “While the FIR was registered in November 2015, no arrests were made. The accused were arrested only after the Congress party formed the government in the State in 2018, and challan was presented in the Court on December 27, 2018, and the charges were framed on July 30, 2019,” he added.
He said that after preparing and presenting the case and defending it strongly, it was because of the previous Congress government’s efforts that the guilty were convicted and punished today and the new AAP government had no role in it.
Referring to AAP MP Chadha’s claims that the party’s government successfully ensured that the perpetrators of sacrilege were sent to jail, Ranahdwa asked, “What is the contribution of the AAP government in this as whatever was done, was done by the previous Congress government only”.