Probe further, DGP writes to CBI

Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 2

Days after the CBI closed investigation into three main sacrilege cases at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala and Bargari villages in 2015, the Punjab Police Bureau of Investigation (BoI) has asked the agency to continue the probe, pointing out to the possible role of Pakistan-based agencies.

The CBI closure report is on the agenda of the Opposition for the ongoing Punjab Vidhan Sabha session. The CBI report, filed on July 13 in a special CBI court at Mohali, said 10 persons arrested by the Punjab cops in the three cases, all followers of Dera Sacha Sauda, were innocent.

The Special DGP-cum-Director Bureau of Investigation Prabodh Kumar, in a letter (a copy is with The Tribune) to the CBI Director on July 29, sought that these cases be further probed “in the light of certain aspects that need to be checked with the authorities abroad.” 

He has contested the CBI finding that Dera Sacha Sauda follower and key accused Mohinder Pal Bittu (killed inside jail) was innocent. 

The letter mentions the usage of two Pakistan-based phone numbers and calls by a local man, who fled to Portugal in 2015. He has attached a two-page note by DIG Ranbir Khatra, who heads a SIT on sacrilege cases other than the three handed over to the CBI.

DGP Dinkar Gupta said  the CBI was the nodal agency for collecting the “required information from authorities abroad.” Former DGP SS Saini and then Home Minister Sukhbir Badal had in 2015 also blamed “foreign-based persons” for the sacrilege incidents, mentioning two youths based in Australia as suspects.