Succumbing to the pressure by the opposition and the Sikh protestors, the Punjab Government on Monday released the two brothers —Rupinder Singh and Jaswinder Singh - arrested in the main case of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib bir (copy) at Bargari village in Faridkot
district.
The decision, came a day after the State Government “officially” recommended the probe into three sacrilege cases to the Central Bureau of Investigation, was reportedly taken on the instructions of the state Home Department.
The Punjab Government on Monday moved an application, filed under section 169 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), in Faridkot local court. The Faridkot Police has submitted a written statement in the court that they do not need arrest of the accused any more.
The Court, in the evening, ordered the release of the two brothers, and the same orders reached the Faridkot Jail late in the evening following which both of them were released by the jail authorities.
Several Sikh organisations, and even the residents of Panjgrain village, from where the two brothers hailed, have all along been claiming innocence of the arrested accused.
However, the accused brothers would continue be named in the FIR (first information report) registered regarding sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib in Bargari village.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the jail to witness release of the accused brothers.
The Punjab Police on October 21 arrested the two brothers for the main case of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib bir (copy) at Bargari village in Faridkot district. Their arrests were made after the Police “intercepted” their phone calls with each other and also to Australia and Dubai. Police had claimed that the preliminary investigations of the two accused revealed that they were getting instructions and funding from “foreign handlers” in Australia and Dubai.
The State Additional Director General of Police Inder Preet Singh Sahota, who is heading the State Government's special investigation team (SIT) to look into the incidents of sacrilege, had said during their interrogation, “foreign link as well as funding had been established” in Faridkot sacrilege incident.
Punjab was on boil since October 12 when the first incident of desecration was reported from Bargari village in Faridkot district, sharing its border with Pakistan. As many as 110 pages of Guru Grath Sahib, stolen from the Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village in June, were found torn off outside a gurudwara.
Following this, six more cases of sacrilege have been reported from other districts coupled with widespread protests across the State. During protests, two protesters were killed in police firing on 14 October at Behbal Kalan village near Faridkot.
Seeing things going out of hand, the Centre had deployed paramilitary forces in four districts — Amritsar, Jalandhar, Tarn Taran and ludhiana.