Sacrilege case: ‘Honeypreet directed to desecrate Guru Granth Sahib, Dera chief endorsed it’

According to sources, police have already chargesheeted Ram Rahim in the sacrilege case and this is the first time when Honeypreet Insan’s name has cropped up. Kaler, a proclaimed offender, had been on the run since 2018 and was arrested last month after photos of him attending a religious function in Ayodhya with a BJP UP Cabinet minister went viral, police said.

According to police sources, Kaler said that he became associated with Dera in 1987 and was appointed the national president of Dera’s political wing by Ram Rahim in 2019. In March or April 2015, Ram Rahim called Kaler to Dera Sirsa. “When I reached the venue, Gurmeet Ram Rahim, Honeypreet, Rakesh Dirba, Sandeep Bareta, Harsh Dhuri, Mohinder Pal Bittu, Gulab and Gurleen were present,” Kaler said in the statement.

“Mohinder Pal brought to the knowledge of Ram Rahim that Harjinder Singh Manjhi, a Sikh preacher, had conducted a religious congregation at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village in Faridkot district, where some followers of Ram Rahim got inspired by Manjhi’s preaching and broke lockets bearing pictures of the Dera chief and threw on the floor,” Kaler said.

“This enraged Honeypreet. Ram Rahim and Honeypreet said they should give them a fitting reply (Itt da jawab patthar naal). Rakesh Dirba and Bittu said the Guru Granth Sahib is a symbol of the Sikhs. To which Honeypreet said they should desecrate the Guru Granth Sahib. Ram Rahim subsequently directed them to execute Honeyreet’s instructions immediately,” Kaler said in the statement.

“Mohinder Pal Bittu, one of the 45 members of the Dera’s committee asked his team to execute the task. I was standing behind Ram Rahim, who asked me what my role would be. As I told him I was going to Delhi, he asked me to meet some people there,” Kaler said.

According to police sources, Kaler stated that there was a threat to his life and the lives of his family members and that they might be killed. “I and my family have been facing threats. Ram Rahim, Honeypreet, Rakesh Dirba and others may get us killed. Mohinder Pal was already killed in the Nabha high-security cell,” Kaler added.

Responding to the fresh development, Dera lawyer Kewal Brar in Faridkot said, “SIT is concocting stories to save their skin because further investigation has been marked against the SIT by Justice Raj Mohan Singh of the Punjab and Haryana High Court vide an order dated August 18, 2022. Besides, the investigation is still pending into the Mohinderpal Bittu Murder conspiracy based on his last letter/diary note. No sacrilege was committed by any Dera followers. These are false and politically motivated charges against them.”

Kaler, who was arrested in Gurgaon, is accused of being one of the conspirators in the incidents related to the desecration of Guru Granth Sahib in Faridkot in 2015. Dera Sacha Sauda follower Kaler and two other accused — Sandeep Bareta and Harsh Dhuri — were declared proclaimed offenders. Kaler was declared wanted by the Punjab Police in 2018.

Three national committee members of Dera Sirsa — Harash Dhuri, Pardeep Kaler and Sandeep Bareta— are wanted in sacrilege cases. The police have also named three Dera Sacha Sauda followers —Gurtej Singh, Amrik Singh and Avtar Singh —in connection with the 2017 Maur bomb blast, in which seven people were killed.

Bareta and Dhuri are still on the run.

The name of Kaler was mentioned in FIR number 63 in connection with the theft of a ‘bir’ (copy) of the Guru Granth Sahib from Jawahar Singh Wala Gurdwara in Faridkot district in June 2015. The handwritten sacrilegious posters and torn pages of the holy book were found scattered at Bargari in Faridkot leading to anti-sacrilege protests in Faridkot.

In the police firing at anti-sacrilege protesters in October 2015, two persons were killed in Behbal Kalan while some persons were injured at Kotkapura in Faridkot.

Notably, 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 the desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib. Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh had been named in the three sacrilege incidents.

The BJP-led Haryana government has been facing criticism over granting undue parole to Ram Rahim. Recently, the High Court directed the Haryana government not to grant further parole to the Dera chief.

In 2015, the then SAD-BJP government had handed over three cases — theft of a ‘bir’ (copy) of the Guru Granth Sahib from a Burj Jawahar Singh Wala gurdwara; putting up of handwritten sacrilegious posters in Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala; and torn pages of the holy book found at Bargari — to the CBI for the probe.

Later, the Congress-led Punjab government had handed over the probe to a special investigation team (SIT) of the Punjab Police in September 2018 after the state Assembly passed a resolution withdrawing consent to the CBI to investigate these cases, noting the lack of progress in the investigation.