CHANDIGARH: The Punjab police SIT, probing sacrilege incidents, on Saturday arrested seven followers of Dera Sacha Sauda in Faridkot district for their alleged involvement in a 2015 Guru Granth Sahib theft case.
"We have arrested seven persons who are Dera Sacha Sauda followers," said Deputy Inspector General of Police (Jalandhar Range) Ranbir Singh Khatra, who is leading the Special Investigation Team.
The seven accused were allegedly involved in the theft of a 'bir' (copy) of Guru Granth Sahib from Burj Jawahar Singh Wala gurdwara in Faridkot in 2015, as per police investigation.
They were later presented before a local court in Faridkot where five of them were sent to two-day police remand while two were let off when their counsels claimed they had already secured bail in this same case.
A SIT of the Punjab police has been probing the 2015 sacrilege incidents after the state government withdrew these cases from the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The three sacrilege cases were -- theft of a 'bir' of the holy book of Sikhism from the gurdwara on June 1, 2015; putting up hand-written sacrilegious posters in Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala on September 25 and torn pages of the holy book being found at Bargari on October 12, 2015, in Faridkot.
Another Punjab police SIT, led by Inspector General Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, is probing firing incidents of 2015 in Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura.