Chandigarh (17 June, 2018): Following the footsteps of his predecessor Badals, Chief Minister Capt Amrinder Singh too has delayed and deflected the investigations into the Bargari beadbi case and has taken shelter behind the ongoing probe into the matter being undertaken by the CBI and the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission, said Sikh intellectuals including former IAS Gurtej Singh, Dr. Gurdarshan Singh Dhillon, Jaspal Singh Sidhu, Sukhdev Singh (both journalists) and Gurpreet Singh (spokesman Kendri Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Chandigarh).
“Tactically, to neutralise the ongoing protests against the inordinate delay in unearthing the truth in the beadbi at Baragri village in Faridkot since June first, Punjab Police have made some arrests and its Special Investigation Team (SIT) has freshly enacted a drama of searching for a Sroop of Guru Granth Sahib allegedly dumped in the drain in the area”, intellectuals said in a written statement.
“Such search by SIT is a sheer mockery played on the religious sentiments of the people as how anyone can think of locating the Saroop which was allegedly thrown in the drain three years ago after stealing the same from a gurdwara in village Burj Jawahar Singh wala (Faridkot district) on first June in 2015”, the statement added.
As reported in the press, SIT chief DIG Ranbir Singh Khatra who led the pre-dawn search exercise yesterday (June 16) claimed that they were sincerely looking into clues acquired from the accused.
“In fact, Capt Amrinder Singh has failed to honour his pre-election commitment that his government would make the truth behind the Bargari sacrilege public within weeks after coming into power. Now it looks like the CM and the Badals have developed a tactic political understanding over the issue which has resulted in the tardy investigations into the matter,” the statement said.
On the other hand, the Badals are said to have questioned the recent arrest of some accused from the Sirsa Dera premises. The questions raised recently by the Badal family owned television, PTC into the veracity of investigations is also an attempt to build a false and confusing narrative through the dissemination of fake news, the statement reads further.
Sikh Intellectuals further said: “The Badal-BJP combine was ruling in 2015 when the Bargari beadbi incident took place and it had not made any serious effort to find out the truth. Rather, they had attempted to suppress the peaceful protestors by brutally firing upon them and by wantonly killing the two. They also deflected the investigation by falsely accusing two devoted Sikhs of committing the crime and later torturing them in police custody to elicit confessions from them. Such conduct made the Sikhs in general suspicious about the Badal- BJP rulers’ complicity in the beadbi, regardless of who the guilty ones were”.
“Now a legend is fast growing that the Badals are deliberately raising an accusing finger on the recent arrests and attempting to obfuscate the investigations since the ongoing probe by the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission to obviate the coming up with some leads which would have serious implications for the Akali leaders and the Dera Sacha Sauda in tow”, they added.