Bargari sacrilege case: Five co-accused move SC seeking trail of transfer outside Punjab

Following a long adjournment, the Bargari sacrilege case will be next heard on February 21, a CJM court in Punjab's Faridkot has ruled. Meanwhile, Five of the accused filed a petition before the SC, through their counsel, to transfer the case out of Punjab citing threat to their lives. This comes after the killings of fellow accused Pardeep Singh and Mohinder Pal Singh Bittu.

New Delhi: After the murder of Pardeep Singh Kataria, Dera Sacha Sauda followers, who are co-accused in the 2015 Bargari sacrilege incidents, approached the Supreme Court seeking transfer of the trial of three inter-linked cases related to the blasphemy case in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Faridkot outside Punjab claiming security threat.

In the petition filed by Dera Sacha Sauda followers in the Supreme Court, it has been stated that Mahinderpal Bittu, the accused in the blasphemy case, has been killed in jail while in court custody and Pradeep Singh was shot dead two months ago at his shop in Kotakpura. Based on these incidents, they said that they face a threat to their lives. The Supreme Court is likely to hear the petition of Dera followers on January 30.

The three cases related to desecration were heard in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Monica Lamba here on Sunday, but no Dera followers appeared in the court. The court excused the appearance of all the accused for today based on the application of the lawyers. Dera followers did not appear in court citing a threat to their safety.

Meanwhile, the Special Investigation Team has provided 600 pages of documents to the lawyers of the Dera followers. The Dera followers had sought all the documents of the desecration-related cases from the investigation team, which have been produced in the court, along with the challan. These documents also include CBI investigation reports.

Meanwhile, Dera chief Ram Rahim Singh on Saturday left the Sunaria jail premises on a 40-day parole, and reached the Barnawa Ashram in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat, accompanied by adopted daughter Honeypreet. Despite strong criticism from the Shiromani Akali Dal as well as the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), he found support from the Haryana state administration with Jail Minister Ranjit Singh Chautala saying the former was 'like any other prisoner.'

“Gurmeet Ram Rahim is like any other prisoner here and he also has his fundamental rights. After three to five years, a prisoner can apply for parole and it is not in our hands, competent authority decides on the bail,” he said. Notably, the Dera chief was provided a similar parole three months ago, which ended on November 23. Before that, he had received another parole back in June.