Justice Ranjit Singh submits final report on sacrilege cases

The Justice (Retd) Ranjit Singh Commission on June 30 had submitted the first part of the sacrilege cases report to the chief minister.

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has directed the state home department to take necessary action based on the full report on sacrilege cases, which was submitted by Justice (retd), Ranjit Singh, today.

The Justice (Retd) Ranjit Singh Commission on June 30 had submitted the first part of the sacrilege cases report to the chief minister.

The report had dealt with the incidents of sacrilege at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala, Bargari, Gurusar and Mallke villages, as well as the firing incident in Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura.

The final report is in three parts, said an official spokesperson. Part-II deals with incidents of sacrilege in SAS Nagar, Fatehgarh Sahib, Rupnagar and Patiala districts, while Part-III is on incidents in SBS Nagar (Nawanshahr) and Hoshiarpur.

Part-IV relates to sacrilege incidents in Amritsar, Bathinda, Barnala, Faridkot, Fazilka, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Ludhiana, Mansa, Moga, Sangrur, Sri Muktsar Sahib and Tarn Taran districts.

The complete set of reports, along with an 'action taken report (ATR)', will be tabled in the next session of the Vidhan Sabha, as was already announced by the chief minister.

The chief minister asserted that those found guilty of trying to create religious disharmony in the state through such actions would be punished.

The commission was set up in April 2017 by the Congress government to investigate various incidents of sacrilege.

The Congress government had decided to constitute the panel after rejecting the findings of Zora Singh Commission, which was set up by the erstwhile SAD-BJP government, calling it's as 'inconclusive'.

The new commission was to conduct an enquiry into the cases of sacrilege of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, Srimad Bhagwad Gita and Holy Quran Sharif and enquire into the detailed facts and circumstance and chronology of events of what actually happened and to identify the role played by various persons into what happened, and also to inquire into the truth of what occurred in such incidents and factual role of the persons who may have been involved.

The commission was also mandated to inquire into the firing in Kotkapura on October 14, 2015, and village Behbal Kalan, district Faridkot, in which two persons died, besides identifying and enquiring into the role of the police officers/officials in inconclusive investigations in the earlier incidents of sacrileges.

Acting on the first report submitted by the commission, the Punjab Police has included the names of four police personnel in the FIR registered in 2015 in the Behbal Kalan firing incident.

In accordance with the recommendations of the commission, and on the directives of the chief minister, the roles of five other police officers will also be thoroughly investigated.

Regarding the Kotkapura firing, a case under various sections of IPC and Arms Act was registered on August 7, as per the commission's recommendation.

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