BATHINDA: Police in Punjab’s Muktsar district registered the first case under the controversial new sacrilege law that came into effect on April 20 after torn pages from the Sukhmani Sahib Gutka prayer book were found scattered on a street in Malut town on Thursday.
An FIR was registered on Thursday night at Malut police station against unknown persons under the Jagat Jyot Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar (Amendment) Act based on a complaint from Jangir Singh, a resident of the city, police said.
“The incident does not appear to be an intentional act of mischief,” said Abhimanyu Rana, Muktsar’s chief inspector of police, but added that “a team led by Deputy Inspector of Police (DSP) Harpreet Singh Mann is currently questioning local residents.”
About 40 recovered pages were handed over to a nearby gurdwara as per maryada (religious protocol), the SSP said.
DSP Mann said police are scanning CCTV footage from the area. “We are also checking whether the damaged prayer book has reached the area through rag pickers who collect scraps and old textbooks from the town and nearby villages.”
Meanwhile, a team of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) met police officials and sought to identify those responsible and take appropriate action. “The issue is not of registering an FIR, but of punishing the culprits irrespective of the act,” SGPC media secretary Harbhajan Singh Vakta said.
“An FIR has been registered against unknown persons. Therefore, justice will be done when the police identify the culprits,” SGPC legal counsel advocate Amanbir Singh Sayali said.
Speaking on the issue, AAP spokesperson Neil Garg said, “Muktsar district police have taken swift action to register a criminal case as per the new law. The police are working to identify the culprits behind the incident.”
The Jagat Jyot Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar (Amendment) Act, enacted by the Punjab Assembly, provides for stringent punishment, including life imprisonment and a fine of up to $25 lakhs for the ‘Bidbi’ (sacrilege) of the Guru Granth Sahib. It was approved by Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria on April 17 this year.
“Several incidents of Bidbi in the past have severely hurt public sentiments and caused unrest. While Sections 298, 299 and 300 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, address such matters, they do not provide stringent enough penalties to act as a strong deterrent,” a Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) spokesperson said at the time. .
According to data from the state government, 597 cases of sacrilege have been reported in the past decade. Of these, 480 involved desecration of Sikh religious books and shrines, 92 involved Hindu religious places, 14 involved Islamic shrines and sanctities and 11, Christian places of worship. So far, out of 597 FIRs, only 44 cases have ended in conviction.
Desecration of religious scriptures remains an emotive issue in Punjab and there has been a demand from various quarters to impose strict punishments for such a crime.
The theft of a “copy” of the Guru Granth Sahib, the recovery of sacrilegious posters, and the alleged ripping of pages from the Bible at Bargari in Faridkot sparked widespread protests in October 2015. Two people were killed in Behbal Kalan, and several others were injured in Kookaburra in Faridkot during police firing on peaceful protesters. The accused in these cases include late chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, SAD chief and then home minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and former Punjab police chief Sumedh Singh Saini.
Saini and Sukhbir Badal have been named as the “masterminds” of the conspiracy to use illegal and excessive force to cover up the state government’s inaction over a series of three sacrilege incidents, including the theft of the Guru Granth Sahib from the Jawahar Singh Wala tower and the desecration of the Sikh holy book at Bargari.
Parkash Badal was accused of “facilitating the implementation of the conspiracy.”
On April 9 this year, the Punjab and Haryana High Court ordered the trial in two FIRs related to the 2015 Kookaburra shooting incident to be transferred from Faridkot to Chandigarh. The judicial process in these cases is ongoing in the Chandigarh District Court.
