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Bargari sacrilege case: SC grants Punjab three weeks to file reply, no relief for Sirsa dera head Ram Rahim

These incidents triggered widespread protests across Punjab, leading to police firing on demonstrators, which resulted in the deaths of two protesters

Reported by:  PTC News Desk  Edited by:  Jasleen Kaur -- February 03rd 2025 03:35 PM
Bargari sacrilege case: SC grants Punjab three weeks to file reply, no relief for Sirsa dera head Ram Rahim

Bargari sacrilege case: SC grants Punjab three weeks to file reply, no relief for Sirsa dera head Ram Rahim

PTC Web Desk:  Hearing the petition related to the Bargari sacrilege case, the Supreme Court on Monday granted the Punjab Government three weeks to submit its response. However, no relief was provided to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in this matter. The next hearing has been scheduled for March 18.

According to reports, in a previous hearing on the Punjab Government’s petition, the Supreme Court had stayed the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s order that halted the trial against Gurmeet Ram Rahim in cases related to the 2015 desecration of the holy scripture Sri Guru Granth Sahib.


During today’s proceedings, Ram Rahim’s counsel argued that the Punjab Government had initially handed over the case to the CBI for investigation. However, two years later, the state government withdrew its consent for the probe, which, according to the defense, was legally untenable. The CBI had subsequently closed the case, expressing its dissatisfaction with the withdrawal. Following this, the Punjab Police conducted its own investigation.

The Punjab Government's legal representative countered by stating that this was the third round of litigation in the case. The accused had not been prosecuted by the CBI but by the state police, and now, as the case was under their jurisdiction, its legal standing remained intact.

The controversy traces back to multiple incidents of desecration in Punjab, beginning with the theft of 'saroop' of Sri Guru Granth Sahib from a gurdwara in Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village, Faridkot, in June 2015. Later in September, sacrilegious posters were found in Bargari and Jawahar Singh Wala. The situation escalated in October when torn pages of the holy scripture were discovered near a gurdwara in Bargari.

These incidents triggered widespread protests across Punjab, leading to police firing on demonstrators, which resulted in the deaths of two protesters. The unrest deepened social and political tensions in the state.

A total of 12 persons were named in three interconnected cases related to the sacrilege and theft of Sri Guru Granth Sahib. The previous SAD-BJP coalition government had transferred the case to the CBI in November 2015.

- With inputs from agencies

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