With Navjot Sidhu heading the Congress party in the state and his commitment to bring justice in desecration cases have started bearing fruits with Punjab government providing prosecution sanctions in cases of sacrilege involving crimes under sections 295A and 153A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Punjab additional chief secretary (home affairs and justice) Anurag Aggarwal on Friday provided the prosecution sanction under Section 196 of CrPC in two cases. The first case is pertaining to pasting of derogatory posters at Bargari in Faridkot on September 25, 2015, and the second case is regarding torn pages of a Bir of Guru Granth Sahib being scattered at Bargari on October 12, 2015.
The sanction has been provided against four accused including Sukhjinder Singh, Shakti Singh, Baljit Singh and Ranjit Singh in the first case, and against six accused including Sukhjinder Singh, Shakti Singh, Baljit Singh, Ranjit Singh, Nishan Singh and Pardeep Singh in the second case.
Notably, prosecution sanction is necessary for cases involving IPC sections 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) and 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony).
“As the special investigation team (SIT) has filed challans in both the cases, it needed the prosecution sanction to move ahead. The sanction has been provided now,” said SIT head IG SPS Parmar.
Sukhjinder Singh, Shakti Singh, Ranjit Singh and Baljit Singh have got bail in both cases, while bail applications of Nishan Singh and Pardeep Singh is expected to be taken up on August 3 by a Faridkot court.
(By Dinesh Sharma)