Probe into cases of sacrilege must be expedited as denial of justice has serious ramifications

 

Quashing of Kotkapura probe by High Court is not end of the road, expedite Bargari

Ground Zero

Jagtar Singh

 

Chandigarh: Impression has gone around that the verdict of the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashing SIT probing the Kotkapura firing case related to sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib has has put to an end the lingering hope of the Sikh devotees of getting justice from the System. It is not. The very institution that is the deliverer of justice has just put a spoke in the wheel and that to mainly because of the incompetence of the government in handling this sensitive case. It is just one case and that too is off-shoot of the basic case that is theft of Bir of Guru Granth Sahib from a gurdwara in Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village in the Malwa hinterland in June 1, 2015 whose pages were subsequently found scattered on the streets of the adjoining Bargari village on the morning of October 12, more than four months later.

In power at that time in Punjab was the Akali Dal-BJP alliance government with Parkash Singh Badal as the Chief Minister with his son Sukhbir Singh Badal as the Deputy Chief Minister incharge of Home department handling the police.

The high court verdict has triggered tremors at various levels as it has given clean chit to Badals.

The devotees were sitting on dharna on a trijunction in Kotkapura a few km away from Bargari beginning October 12 when the police action started early morning on October 14. This was followed three hours later a Behbal Kalan next to Bargari in which two people were killed.

The Justice Ranjit Singh Commission appointed by the Capt Amarinder Singh government has provided the details of these incidents beginning with Burj village on the basis of which the SIT was constituted to probe firing at Behbal and Kotkapura.

However, the SIT probing the Burj and Bargari incidents continue to be functional and these are the basic cases. The Behbal and Kotkapura firing are the off-shoot of Burj and Bargari.

What is the progress in Burj and Bargari cases? Only the state government can tell. Some people associated with Dera Sacha Sauda were arrested and that is the only progress so far.

 No effort has been made again to question Dera chief Gurmit Ram Rahim who is in Rohtak Jail after having been convicted in a rape case. He is facing several other cases too.

Dera Sacha Sauda is perceived by political parties as influential vote bank in Punjab and Haryana.

The Bargari sacrilege is not  a case in isolation and is part of a continuing religio-political narrative and is not a matter to be investigated by the police.

Bargari issue is back on the centre-stage in Punjab’s political domain. While the Akali dal is celebrating, the Congress people are a worried lot.

The basic issue is that Guru Granth Sahib was stolen from Burj and its pages were found scattered months later in Bargari village and the probe is still to be taken to the logical conclusion. Can the Amarinder government act?

The tragedy is that those in power just refuse to learn lesson. However, Capt Amarinder singh himself is a historian and knows the repercussion of denial of justice.

Punjab is witnessing repeat of denial of justice.

All the accused in the Sikh-Nirnkari clash of April 13, 1978 at Amritsar were acquitted by the court on January 4, 1980. Nirankari chief Gurbachan Singh was gunned down at his fortified residence on April 24, 1980 by Ranjit Singh who was not linked to any radical organisation.

It was connivance-cum-incompetence that produced the tragedy beginning April 1978 and the price the country paid was too heavy. This is just part of the record and recent history.

The recent history has a lesson- justice must not be denied.

The remaining cases associated with sacrilege must be taken to the logical conclusion. History has its own ways otherwise.

The problem now is that the high court verdict has set the trend.