CHANDIGARH: An unfortunate incident of sacrilege was reported around 7 pm on 2.11.20 when one Sewa Singh, an 18 year old resident of Suttantar Nagar, Ludhiana, informed Baldev Singh, President of Suttantar Nagar Gurudwara that some torn angs of Sri Guru Granth Sahib had been found scattered in a Paddy field in Prem Vihar, Jan Shakti Nagar area of Police Station Tibba, Ludhiana. On receiving this information, police party immediately responded and reached the spot, and FIR no.178 u/s 295-A, 34 IPC was registered on statement of Baldev Singh, President of Singh Sabha Gurudwara, Suttantar Nagar, Ludhiana.
Disclosing this a spokesperson of Punjab Police said that accused Sewa Singh had also told Baldev Singh that he had seen two motorcycle borne moving away from the spot. The scanning of CCTV footage of CCTV cameras installed in the area showed that there hadn’t been any movement of any motorcycle in that area around the reported time. Thus, his various claims and statements regarding the torn angs of Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji raised suspicion.
He added that on further questioning by Ludhiana police, Sewa Singh confessed that he had himself thrown the angs of a Sanchi Sahib and Gutka Sahib on the spot. On search of his house, the original Sanchi Sahib and Gutka Sahib from which Angs had been torn by Sewa Singh were recovered by the Police, alongwith residents of the area as independent witnesses. A suitcase was also recovered from basement of his house, in which torn Angs of an old Gutka Sahib had been kept. All the torn angs of Gutka Sahib and Sanchi Sahib of SGGS were thus gathered with due maryada, care and respect by S. Baldev Singh, Pardhan Gurudwara Sahib, Suttantar Nagar.
The spokesperson further added that preliminary investigations have revealed that Sewa Singh had joined a WhatsApp group Guru Nanak Sewa Dal. He came in contact with a web channel named as Punjab Star Daily, Sach diyan Tarangan, which was being operated by a person from Batala. Another member of the Whatsapp group, who was an employee of Punjab Star Daily contacted him and motivated him to share news items for his web channel. Sewa Singh sent 3-4 news items to Punjab Star but most of the news items were not published by the news channel.
He further informed that on 2nd November, in a bid to become popular and famous overnight, Sewa Singh decided to commit a sacrilege incident, portray it as having committed by someone else and then become the first one to highlight the sacrilege incident on Punjab Star Daily web channel. He brought Angs of Sanchi Sahib ji and Gutka Sahib ji from his house and scattered them in the open field in Prem Nagar area of Tibba, Ludhiana. He also shot a video from his phone for circulation as a Punjab Star Daily web channel.
Investigation and subsequent recoveries have shown that Sewa Singh had committed the incident in fulfillment of his personal motives and the unfortunate case has been traced with arrest of the accused. A forensic team from Chandigarh visited the spot for forensic examination and analysis of the spot as well as the recovered items. Further investigations are in progress.
He added that liaison was also established with Dharam Prachar Committee of SGPC and Gutka Sahib and Sanchi Sahib were handed over to them for proper custody, as per maryada. Police produced the accused in court and got two days police remand for further investigations.