Sacrilege accused denied bail

Legal Correspondent

Ludhiana March 1

Judicial Magistrate Ankita Loomba on Friday dismissed the bail application of Gurinder Singh, a 35-year-old man, for allegedly desecrating Guru Granth Sahib at a gurdwara.

The incident had taken place at Gurdwara Singh Sabha in the Palam Vihar area at Daad village. He is learnt to be mentally disturbed.

During the arguments on bail plea, the court witnessed heated of exchange of words between the opposite lawyers. Many lawyers from both sides were present in the court.

The defence lawyer submitted that the accused was mentally disturbed ever since he was deported from Australia and had been on medication.

It was pleaded that the entire family of the accused was Sikh and they could not think of doing it.

A case was registered against the accused under Section 295 of the IPC at the Ludhiana Sadar police station on the complaint of Jal Singh, granthi of the gurdwara.

The incident took place around 10 am on February 12. It came to light when a devotee arrived at the gurdwara around 11 am and found Guru Granth Sahib desecrated.

Soon, a team from the Ludhiana Sadar police station visited the gurdwara and initiated investigation.

The desecration act was caught on CCTV cameras installed at the gurdwara. The suspect was said to have scattered other articles and cloth on which Guru Granth Sahib was kept before fleeing the scene.