Kapurthala gurdwara caretaker arrested for lynching incident

Aparna Banerji  

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 24

The Kapurthala police have arrested Amarjit Singh (55), the granthi of the gurdwara at Nizampur Mor, for murder in the case of lynching of a youth there on December 19.

As many as 100 unidentified people have also been booked. Video of the youth being tied and beaten up by a mob had been live-streamed on social media.

The arrest took place hours after CM Charanjit Singh Channi's statement on Friday morning that sacrilege had been ruled out in the Kapurthala incident. He had said that the case was that of murder and an FIR on those charges would be filed.

IG Gurinder Singh Dhillon said, "Amarjit Singh, the granthi of the Nizampur gurdwara, has been arrested. As many as 100 unidentified people have also been booked for the lynching of the youth. The remaining people who include 25 to 30 armed persons are unidentified. But we have the videos and photographs, and they will be identified and arrested. We can't allow lynching incidents to happen."

While Kapurthala SSP HPS Khakh confirmed that an FIR had been lodged against the caretaker of the gurdwara, the Kapurthala police remained tightlipped about the incident till this afternoon. Sources said police are on the lookout for the 100 other accused and more arrests would be made soon.

As many as 150 to 200 people had gathered at the gurdwara after Amarjit and his sewadars caught hold of the youth who they suspected had come with the intention to commit sacrilege. The granthi had live-streamed the event from the gurdwara and also made announcements for people to gather. While the police reached the spot after an hour and a half, till then majority of the injuries had been inflicted, as per police officials.

The police post is near the gurdwara on the opposite side of the road.

In police's attempts to free the youth from the room where he was tied, a scuffle ensued between the police and the mob and at least three police officials were injured.

Meanwhile, until Friday morning the only FIR lodged was against the youth and that for sacrilege under Section 295-A of the IPC. It remained the official FIR for days even as the IG himself had termed it a case of theft and not sacrilege.

Police had been awaiting the official report of the autopsy for the cause of the death of the youth. But following autopsy of the youth conducted on Thursday by a medical board, grievous injuries from sharp-edged weapons had been found on his body. An FIR on charges for murder was lodged on Friday, following which the granthi was arrested. 

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