Bargari sacrilege case: HC restrains Punjab SIT from filing challan in blasphemous posters FIR

In the FIR, it was stated that on September 24 and September 25, 2015, some posters containing derogatory remarks about Shri Guru Granth Sahib and against some leaders of the Sikh religion were found pasted outside an SGPC-managed Gurudwara in Bargari Village.

Sukhjinder’s counsels, advocates RK Handa and Dharam Bir Bhargav, have challenged the action of the Police/SIT (Special Investigation Team) in sending his handwriting samples for comparison with those present on the alleged posters, despite objections.

The advocates argued that the prosecution has got no right to move the application before the trial court and to get the specimen handwriting of petitioner Sukhjinder compared with the writing in the alleged posters during investigations. The advocates said that the CBI had already obtained handwriting samples of their client and got the same compared with the posters in question from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, New Delhi. The CFSL submitted its report on August 27, 2018, in which they said that the writing of the petitioner did not match with those incriminating posters in question. The CBI has already submitted a closure report on July 4, 2019, before the Special Magistrate, CBI Court at Mohali, and said that the petitioner and other accused were innocent.

The petitioner’s counsel further argued that the SIT was competent only to further investigate the matter and not to reinvestigate the same, and also that once the CBI had got the petitioner’s handwriting samples compared from the CFSL, the Police/SIT again had no right to send the same for comparison.

Thus, the advocates argued, that the order of JMIC, Faridkot was totally illegal and not sustainable in the eyes of law.

The bench of Justice Harnaresh Singh Gill, after hearing the matter, issued a notice of motion for July 15, 2021. The bench further ordered, “Till the next date of hearing, the state is restrained from filing the challan in this case.”