An Amritsar resident, Gurpreet Singh, was arrested after he tore pages of the holy gutka (assortment of prayers from the Gurbani) exterior the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine of the Sikhs, on Monday evening, police mentioned on Tuesday.
An Amritsar resident, Gurpreet Singh, was arrested after he tore pages of the holy gutka (assortment of prayers from the Gurbani) exterior the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine of the Sikhs, on Monday evening, police mentioned on Tuesday. (Sameer Sehgal/HT file)
The police mentioned Gurpreet introduced the gutkas of Sukhmani Sahib from Gurdwara Shaheed Ganj that’s located within the neighborhood of the shrine round 10pm on Monday and began tearing pages close to Guru Arjan Dev Niwas, one of many serais within the Golden Temple complicated. When devotees observed him committing the sacrilege, they overpowered and thrashed him earlier than Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) staff took him into their custody.
After questioning him for an hour and a half, the SGPC workers handed him over to Punjab Police. “The accused has been booked under relevant sections at Kotwali police station. We are questioning him,” further deputy commissioner of police (ADCP) Jasroop Kaur Baath mentioned.
The incident comes amid tight safety forward of the forty first anniversary of Operation Bluestar on June 6. Members of Sikh organisations gathered within the temple premises after the incident and sought stringent punishment for the accused.
SGPC chief requires loss of life penalty
Condemning the incident, SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami mentioned, “The government has failed to stop sacrilege incidents and unearth the conspiracy behind them. IT only takes routine action. Perpetrators of sacrilege deserve capital punishment. Unless the punishment is made stricter, these incidents cannot be stopped. Recently, a man guilty of sacrilege at Takht Kesgarh Sahib at Sri Anandpur Sahib was awarded a five-year jail. This is not enough. The government should amend the law and make provision for death sentence for the accused of sacrilege.”
An SGPC delegation, led by secretary Partap Singh, met Amritsar police commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar to induce him to make sure that the matter is investigated completely. “The police must ascertain which force is behind the sacrilege that has taken place when the Sikh community is marking Ghallughara (holocaust) week to commemorate those killed in Operation Bluestar,” he mentioned.
Citing the sacrilege bid contained in the sanctum sanctorum of the Golden Temple on December 18, 2021, Dhami mentioned that the police had did not make a breakthrough.
An unidentified individual tried to desecrate the Guru Granth Sahib contained in the sanctum sanctorum through the night rituals. He jumped the railings and picked up a ‘kirpan’ however alert SGPC staffers acquired maintain of him and devotees thrashed him to loss of life.