Day after sacrilege attempt, Punjab CM Channi visits Golden Temple

A day after a man was beaten to death for an alleged sacrilege attempt at Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Sunday visited the temple premises to take stock of the situation.

Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa was also present at the venue along with the Chief Minister who paid obeisance at the shrine.

Terming the incident at Sri Darbar Sahib as most unfortunate, Randhawa earlier today said that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under Amritsar’s deputy commissioner of police (Law and Order) had been constituted, which would present an investigation report within two days.

According to the Office of Deputy Chief Minister, Punjab, Randhawa held a meeting with Civil and Police officers at Police Lines where Inspector general of police (Border Range) Mohnish Chawla, Police Commissioner Dr Sukhchain Singh Gill, Deputy Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Khaira, SSP (Rural) Rakesh Kaushal, S Rajinder Singh Mehta, S Harjap Singh Suktanwind and S Sukhdev Singh Bhoorakona from SGPC were also present.

After the meeting, the Deputy CM said that the incident was “very unfortunate” and that the police will get to the bottom of it.

“It has come during a preliminary investigation that the accused entered the Sri Darbar Sahib complex at 11:30 am and he stayed at Parikarma of the holiest shrine, which termed that the accused was here with a target, the press statement said.

The CCTV footage of markets adjoining Sri Darbar Sahib was also being scanned to ascertain where that the accused had come from and whether he was accompanied by anyone, Randhawa said.

The state government will enquire about the entire incident jointly with the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC). He also made it clear that the accused was not identified so far and his post-mortem will be conducted shortly.

Punjab Police in association with the SGPC will ensure that the Gurdwaras have its CCTV cameras, which should be fully operational, he added.

The Deputy Chief Minister also mentioned that the Punjab Vidhan Sabha passed a resolution in 2018 to amend section 298 into 295-A but so far no action had been taken so far by the Centre.

He said that section 295-A had a provision of 10-years imprisonment if anyone indulged in the sacrilege of any religion. The State Government will also send a letter to the Centre for approval of section 295-A.

Randhawa also issued directions to the Director-General of Police (DGP), all Commissioners of Police and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSPs) to strengthen round the clock security around all Gurudwaras/Temples/Mosques/Churches and other religious places.

The CCTVs should be functional in the complexes where Guru Granth Sahib are placed beside other religious scriptures in all religious places, the Deputy CM said.

He also said that police should have an active liaison with SGPC and all gurudwaras committees and ensure that Guru Granth Saab should not be left unattended at any time.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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