Faridkot: Sacrilege accused dera followers get exemption from personal appearance in court

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, November 15

Five days after the killing of a Dera Sacha Sauda follower and an accused in sacrilege cases, a local court today allowed all six accused exemption from personal appearance in three sacrilege cases.

Vinod Monga, counsel for the accused, relied upon the increased threat perception to their lives in the wake of November 10 killing of Pardeep Singh in Kotkapura.

Though the police had provided security to the accused, especially after killing of Mohinder Pal Bittu at Nabha jail and attack on another sacrilege case accused, Nishan Singh, the counsel for the accused claimed that they had inadequate security.

Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, who is also a co-accused in these cases, has also been allowed exemption from appearance before the court.

Monga said the court today dismissed an application of the accused under Section 207 of the CrPC, seeking a copy of documents on which cops are relying upon the prosecution of the accused, in sacrilege cases.

The counsel claimed that the police had not provided them copies of all the documents on which it was relying upon for their prosecution, the accused had demanded the copy of an application filed by the Punjab Police for seeking discharge of two Sikh youths, who were initially arrested in the sacrilege cases. Other documents include the CBI’s closure report, Monga said.

Meanwhile, the police had claimed that it had provided the copies of all the documents to the accused in compliance of Section 207 of the CrPC.

In its closure report, the CBI had declared the prime accused as an innocent in July 2019. The CBI said they were closing investigation as no evidence was found against the accused. The CBI claimed of having relied upon reports of forensic psychological assessment, fingerprint, polygraph and handwriting examination and layered voice analysis to give a clean chit the accused.

A month after the sacrilege incidents in 2015, the police had announced of solving the case with the arrest of two residents of Panjgrian village. Later, both these suspects were released by the police.

The six accused in the sacrilege cases want the police to provide them the recordings and transcripts of phone calls of both these persons. The police had claimed of recovering these recordings and transcripts in October 2015 to make its case against the residents of Panjgrian village.

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