Guru Granth Sahib sacrilege: Woman, gurdwara granthi held for Ghawaddi incident

While the woman has been booked under sections 295-A and 34 of the IPC for hurting religious sentiments, the granthi has been booked under Section 201 of the IPC for disappearance of evidence.

During the press briefing, Police Commissioner P S Umranangal and Deputy Police Commissioner Narinder Bhargav did not divulge why she did it.
“It is an extremely sensitive issue and certain things are under investigation as of now. There is a third person behind the whole scene but it is a matter of investigation,” said Umranangal.

Police sources told The Indian Express that Kaur, a baptised (Amritdhari) Sikh and a widow, confessed that she was promised Rs 1 lakh for carrying out the sacrilegious task but was not paid a penny. She was closely associated with the Shiromani Akali Dal and her son Ranjit Singh became nambardaar of the village since SAD came to power in 2012. She first claimed that a local Congress leader told her to do the job. Later, she backtracked. “She is denying as of now if some Sirsa Dera follower was behind it,” said a source. “She has been closely associated with the Akali Dal for years and lived mostly inside gurdwara as a sewadaar. Her younger son was rarely seen in the village since his father died.”

Sarpanch Jagdeep Singh Kala, however, claimed that the woman was not associated with the Akali Dal. “It is very unfortunate that a sewadaar and granthi of our own gurdwara were behind the act,” he added.

The granthi told the police that he had asked Kaur, who had been a sewadaar at gurdwara for many years, to open the locks and start cleaning the premises. When he came back after taking a bath at home, she raised the alarm and asked him to check the holy book once. Some of the visitors had already paid obeisance by then but still both of them did not reveal the incident to anyone. The granthi asked Kaur to stay mum as he might be expelled by the gurdwara committee. However, around 6 am when the matter became serious, both of them informed the sarpanch who called the police.

On Monday, Kaur’s home was locked and her two sons were absconding, said the police. “We have deployed cops outside her home but none from her family or even a relative is there,” said Dehlon SHO Kawaljit Singh.

While the police claimed that her husband died due to an accident a few years ago, sources said that her younger son Ranjodh Singh was booked for murdering his father under Section 302 of the IPC at Sadar police station in 2007 (FIR number 114). But later, the FIR was cancelled due to the lack of evidence.