Bargari sacrilege: Key conspirator Sandeep Bareta arrested in Bengaluru

Bareta, a national committee member of Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda, is involved in three interlinked incidents of sacrilege in Faridkot, and a court had declared him a proclaimed offender. He had been on the run for the last seven years. A lookout notice was also issued against him by the Punjab Police.

According to sources at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru, Bareta was detained by Bureau of Immigration (BOI) officials after they discovered the lookout circular associated with his passport, while he was attempting to board an international flight.

“Police party sent for getting the accused for his production before court and seeking police remand for custodial interrogation,” the police wrote on Twitter. Baretta, currently in the custody of the Bengaluru Police, will be handed over to a Special Investigation Team of the Punjab Police.

The incidents — the theft of a “bir” (copy) of the Guru Ganth Sahib, putting up handwritten sacrilegious posters and torn pages of the holy book found scattered at Bargari — took place in Faridkot in 2015.

The incidents had led to anti-sacrilege protests in Faridkot. In the police firing at the protesters in October 2015, two people were killed in Behbal Kalan while some people were injured at Kotkapura in Faridkot.

An investigation report of the Punjab Police on the 2015 sacrilege cases had pinned the blame on the Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda sect for the incidents of desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by Additional Director General of Police SPS Parmar was probing the sacrilege incidents.

Among the other accused, Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim was also named in the three sacrilege incidents. Along with Bareta, two other accused — Harsh Dhuri and Pardeep Kler — were declared proclaimed offenders. The other accused in the three cases included Sukhjinder Singh alias Sunny, Shakti Singh, Baljit Singh, Randeep Singh alias Neela, Ranjit Singh alias Bhola and Nishan Singh.

Bareta was part of the 45-member national committee of Dera Sacha Sauda. Hailing from Baretta town in Mansa, he held a strong influence in Dera’s affairs. Bareta used to enjoy security cover provided by the Punjab Police, which was withdrawn in 2018, only after his name cropped up in the sacrilege case.

According to the chargesheet filed in the Faridkot court in the 2015 sacrilege case, there was no conflict between Sikhs and Dera Sacha Sauda before 2007. The conflicts began after Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, during a gathering at Salabatpura in Bathinda in May 2007, wore an attire similar to that of Guru Gobind Singh and replicated the the tenth Sikh master’s act of baptizing the Panj Pyaras at the time of the creation of Khalsa in 1699.

The conflict between Sikh bodies and Sirsa based Dera led to law and order problems on numerous occasions. According to the chargesheet, there was a clash between Sikh religious preacher Baljit Singh Daduwal and Dera followers in Jaito town of Faridkot in 2009.

During the same period, Dera followers opposed the religious congregations of another Sikh preacher, Harjinder Singh Majhi, and the police had to intervene on several occasions to prevent clashes, according to the chargesheet.

During one such congregation, some Dera followers had removed the lockets bearing photograph of Gurmeet Ram Rahim and threw it on the floor, leading to resentment in another section of Dera followers.

Some Ram Rahim followers from Burj Jawahar Singh Wala approached Gopal Krishan, a Dera committee member, who directed them to meet Mohinder Pal Bittu, a state committee member.

Bittu then informed Harsh Dhuri, Sandeep Bareta, and Pardeep Kader about the incident. Allegedly, these three individuals instructed Bittu over the phone to seek revenge, which ultimately led to the sacrilege incident, according to the police chargesheet.

According to the chargesheet, the same two individuals who were allegedly chosen to attack Daduwal, namely Sukhjinder Singh and Randeep, were also selected for this task after consulting with Harsh Dhuri and Pardeep Kaler.

The probe conducted by then Special Investigation Team (SIT) head, IG Ranbir Singh Khatra, revealed that Harsh Dhuri, Pardeep Kaler, and Sandeep Bareta played a role in directing the other accused to commit sacrilege acts in the respective areas. They were considered key individuals bridging the gap between the planners and the perpetrators involved in the sacrilege incidents in Bargari town of Faridkot, Malke of Moga, and Bhagta villages of Bathinda.

Harsh Dhuri and Pardeep Kaler are also proclaimed offenders.

Talking to The Indian Express, Ranbir Singh Khatra, now retired, said, “Harsh Dhuri, Pardeep Kaler, Sandeep Bareta and other main accused had police security till 2018.”

According to the investigation, in the Gurusar Bhagta sacrilege case reported on October 20, 2015, Harsh Dhuri, Sandeep Bareta, and Pardeep Kaler allegedly handed over pages of the Guru Granth Sahib to Jatinderbir Arora, a state committee member of Dera, for sacrilege. Arora purportedly carried out the plan with the assistance of Sukhmander Singh, Kuldeep Singh, and Daljit Singh, who are all residents of Bhagta Bhai Ka village in Bathinda. This case remains unsolved as the police are unaware of which bir (copy of the Guru Granth Sahib) the pages belonged to and the whereabouts of that bir.

The investigation also revealed that Harsh Dhuri, Sandeep Bareta, and Pardeep Kaler conspired for another instance of Guru Granth Sahib sacrilege in Malke village in Moga, reported on November 5, 2015.

Bittu was killed in the Nabha prison in Patiala by two inmates in 2019.

In 2015, the then SAD-BJP government handed over the three cases — the theft of a “bir” of the Guru Granth Sahib from a Burj Jawahar Singh Wala gurdwara, putting up handwritten sacrilegious posters in Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala, and torn pages of the holy book found at Bargari — to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The Congress-led Punjab government, however, handed over the probe to an SIT of the state police in September 2018 after the Assembly passed a resolution, withdrawing consent to the CBI to investigate these cases, noting a lack of progress in the investigation.