2015 ‘bir’ theft case: 3 dera followers booked on court orders

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, March 4

The police registered a criminal case against three Dera Sacha Sauda followers at Bajakhana police station in Faridkot on Thursday. Harish Dhuri, Pardeep Kaler and Sandeep Bareta, all central committee members of the dera, have been booked under Section 174-A on the directions of a judicial court here.

All these office-bearers in the dera are accused in connection with the theft of ‘bir’ of Guru Granth Sahib from a gurdwara in Burj Jawahar Singh Wala on June 1, 2015.

As per the investigation by the Special Investigation Team of police, probing the sacrilege cases, the accused along with dera head Gurmeet Ram Rahim were allegedly part of conspiracy in the theft of the ‘bir’, which led to Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura police firing incidents.

In January this year, the court had declared all these accused proclaimed offenders (PO) in the sacrilege case.

As they have failed in appearing before the court in response to a proclamation under Section 82 of Act 2, so the court directed the police to book them under Section 174-A of IPC.

The court has also directed the police to procure the list of all properties in the name of these accused so that these properties could be attached to procure their appearance before the court.

To procure their appearance before the court, the police had earlier pasted the copies of proclamation of the accused at the bus stand and Satnam Shah Chowk in Sirsa. However, they did not appear before the court.

The SIT claimed to have conducted searches in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan to nab the accused but without success.