Killing over sacrilege: 3 awarded life sentence for 2016 Dera Sacha Sauda follower follower's murder

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, February 4

The Additional Sessions Judge, Jagdeep Singh Marok, on Friday awarded life imprisonment to three persons for killing a Dera Sacha Sauda follower on June 13, 2016, at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village in Faridkot.

Killing over sacrilege

• June 1, 2015: A “saroop” of Guru Granth Sahib gets stolen from a gurdwara at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala
• September 25, 2015: Handwritten sacrilegious posters found pasted on the wall of gurdwara at Burj Jawahar
• October 12, 2015: Torn pages of the same “bir” found scattered in Bargari
• October 14, 2015: Police firing in Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura resulted in death of two protesters
• June 13, 2016: Gurdev Singh, a dera follower, was murdered at his shop in Burj Jawahar Singh Wala

Gurpreet Singh, alias Gopi, Ashok Kumar, alias Amna of Kohala village in Ferozepur, and Jaswant Singh, alias Kala of Chak Attari Sadarwala in Muktsar, have been awarded life imprisonment along with Rs 25,000 fine.

The trio had killed Gurdev Singh almost a year after a “saroop” of Guru Granth Sahib was allegedly stolen from a gurdwara at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala.

Gurdev had a grocery shop, which was situated in front of the gurdwara. The torn pages of this “saroop” were allegedly found in Bargari, which had led to widespread tension in the Punjab.

The killing of Gurdev had led to a massive protest by dera followers and the police had registered a murder case against unknown persons.

The accused were nabbed after the Mallanwala police in Ferozepur arrested Gurpeet and Ashok. During the course of investigation, the duo disclosed that they had murdered Gurdev at the instance of Jaswant, who was arrested on August 13, 2017.

Gurdev was one of the CBI’s key witnesses in the investigation related to theft of “saroop”. The central probe agency had questioned Gurdev numerous times as he was believed to be a prime witness, due to the location of his shop.

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