No clean chit to Sirsa dera chief in sacrilege cases, clarify police

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 29

The Punjab Police on Wednesday termed all allegations of giving a clean chit to Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim as bogus and baseless.

An official spokesperson said the clarification was given in response to news reports (not in The Tribune), referring to Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota, who has been given the additional charge of the Director General of Police (DGP), that he gave a clean chit to Gurmeet Ram Rahim while heading an SIT to investigate the Bargari sacrilege cases in 2015.

The spokesperson said ‘angs’ of Sri Guru Granth Sahib were found scattered in Bargari village on October 12, 2015, and FIR no. 128 was registered under Sections 295 and 120B of the IPC at the Bajakhana police station. An SIT headed by Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota, then Director, Bureau of Investigation, was constituted to investigate the sacrilege case.

The spokesperson clarified the SIT had functioned just for 20 days (from October 14, 2015, to November 2, 2015), after which the case was transferred to the CBI.

“The entire investigation was conducted by the CBI, not the SIT headed by Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota,” the spokesperson said, adding no clean chit had been given to Gurmeet Ram Rahim or any other person.