Giani Gurbachan Singh Gives Three Day Ultimatum to Police; Seeks Closure of All Deras in Punjab

TARN TARAN, Punjab—The Tarn Taran Police has booked ten followers of Divya Jyoti Jagarti Sansthan (Noormehal based cult) on charges of burning the holy saroop of Guru Granth Sahib. All the accused are still at-large while the situation in the Jodhpur village (near Tarn Taran) remains tense and heavy police has remained deployed there.

The accused have been identified as Harjit, Lovely, Balkar, Rinku, Balbir, Maan, Bhola, Sucha, Tejinder and Onkar. All accused are followers of the deceased cult leader Ashutosh Jha but still carry the last name “Singh”. Jha had previously asked his followers to carry out such operations against Sikhs.

Tarn Taran SSP Manmohan Kumar Sharma said that on the complaint of Ajit Singh of Jodhpur village, Sadar police has registered a case against the ten persons under section 452, 295-A, 436, 427 of the IPC while no arrest has been made so far. He said that police were conducting raids for the possible hideouts of the accused and the suspects would be nabbed soon.

Akal Takht Sahib’s appointed Jathedar, Giani Gurbachan Singh, and a three member SGPC team consisting of Gurbachan Singh Karmoowala, Rajinder Singh Mehta, and Roop Singh visited the Gurdwara Sahib at Jodhpur in Tarn Taran District where the sacrilegious incident of burning Guru Granth Sahib ji happened yesterday.

Sikhs consider the Guru Granth Sahib as a “living guru”. Even the Indian Supreme Court, in a previous judgment, had held the Holy Scripture as a “person”, provided it was duly installed in a gurdwara.

The Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh said that “The court has ruled that Guru Granth Sahib was a living person. There were properties in the name of Guru Granth Sahib at many places. Anyone who sets on fire the copies or contents of Guru Granth Sahib without following the laid down maryada should be booked in a murder case.”

Jathedar has given a three days ultimatum to the administration to arrest the accused, and demanded that all of the cult’s compounds in the state be closed. Jathedar also demanded that the security provided by the state government be immediately withdraw. He said that it was a serious issue, and had upset Sikhs living worldwide.

The Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandak Committee members, and various Sikh organizations took out a procession (Nagar Kirtan) by placing the half burnt Holy Granth in a special bus, and brought the Granth Sahib to Goindwal Sahib for cremation rites. The Akhand Path Sahib was commenced at the Gurdwara, and the bhog ceremony will be held on Thursday.