DW BUREAU / Chandigarh

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday said his government is firmly committed to ensure exemplary punishment to the perpetrators of the desecration of the Sikh holy book Guru Granth Sahib in 2015. He made this assertion shortly after his party MLA Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh raised the sacrilege incidents issue in the state assembly.

Mann said a fresh report on the matter will be filed soon. Taking part in discussions in the assembly, he said his government has got major clues in the 2015 sacrilege incidents. "We have got many clues in the matter," Mann informed the House. He said the report has already been sent by the state government for legal vetting so that no one escapes punishment for their involvement in this crime.

The day is not far away when the culprits of this heinous crime will be seen behind the bars, he said, adding that unlike the previous governments, his dispensation will not leave any stone unturned for this. Slamming the previous governments for adopting a "soft approach" towards this highly emotive issue, Mann said due to this laxity, the criminals who have bruised the psyche of Sikhs by committing such unpardonable crime are still roaming free.

He said that it is the bounden duty of his government to ensure that these dreaded criminals get punishment.

Every person who has been hand in glove in this crime will be ensured exemplary punishment for this sin, he asserted.

The incidents related to the theft of a 'bir' (copy) of Guru Ganth Sahib, putting up handwritten sacrilegious posters and torn pages of the holy book found scattered at Bargari, had taken place in Faridkot in 2015.

These incidents had led to anti-sacrilege protests in Faridkot.

In the police firing at the protesters in October 2015, two persons were killed in Behbal Kalan while some were injured at Kotkapura in Faridkot. During the Zero Hour, Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh sought a detailed discussion on the sacrilege matter in the House and urged the Speaker to extend the session by one day for holding a debate.

Singh said in August 2018, the probe into the sacrilege incidents was withdrawn from the CBI and a special investigation team of Punjab Police was formed.

Singh, a former IPS officer, was part of the SIT which had probed the 2015 Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan policing firing incidents.

He took premature retirement in 2021 after the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed a report filed by him into the Kotkapura firing incident in 2015.

Singh said the report pertaining to the police firing incident following anti-sacrilege protests should be tabled in the House.
(editor@dailyworld.in)