CBI searches dera follower’s house

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, June 18

After a special investigation team (SIT) of the Punjab police, probing the three-year-old sacrilege incidents in Faridkot, handed over the so far conducted investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the CBI sleuths on Sunday evening searched the house of Shakti Singh at Daggu Romana village of Faridkot.

It is alleged that Shakti Singh and his two associates, Sukhjinder Singh and Ranjit Singh of Kotkapura, had scattered the torn pages of a stolen ‘Bir’ of Guru Granth Sahib around a gurdwara in Bargari on October 12, 2015.

This ‘Bir’ was allegedly stolen by some Sacha Sauda dera followers from Burj Jawahar Singh Wala on June 1.

During the search, the CBI sleuths were being accompanied by Shakti Singh, who was arrested by the SIT last week.

The so far investigation by the SIT, following the arrest of more than a dozen dera followers in the past 10 days, has revealed that Mohinder Pal Bittu, the state committee member of the dera, had made the plan to steal the ‘Bir’ from Burj Jawahar Singh Wala on June 1, 2015, and Randeep Singh Neela and Sukhjinder Singh alias Sunny Kanda had executed the plan.

The stolen ‘Bir’ was kept at the residence of a dera follower at Sikhan Wala village and then on September 24, 2015, hand-written posters with derogatory and blasphemous language were posted outside Gurdwara Burj Jawahar Singh Wala.