ROPAR: Prolonged interrogations along with electronic and other evidence collected by the cops, helped the investigators solve the matter related to desecration of the holy pages of Sri
Guru Granth Sahib at
Singh Shaheedan Gurudwara Sahib at village Dangoli. The police have arrested Gurudwara Granthi(priest), Jagtar Singh in the case.
During questioning, Jagtar told his interrogators that whie working as a truck driver he found it hard to perform the religious duties. It was out of sheer frustrations and mental stress that he desecrated the holy book with his Siri Sahib (religious knife), which has also been recovered by the cops.
During his questioning, the granthi told the cops that on Saturday morning he left the Gurudwara at 5:45 after offering morning prayers. He claimed that he had locked up the Gurudwara premises. However, the village womenfolk, who were first to visit the shine on Saturday morning raised an alarm after seeing the holy book desecrated.
As the interrogated confronted Jagtar with the facts, he retracted from his statement and said he had left the Gurudwara doors open. The investigators also scrutinised his call details to ascertain if he had called up the villagers to inform them about the incident as he claimed in his statement. However, his call details revealed that no calls were made.
SSP Raj Bachan said the discrepancies in his statement raised the suspicion of the interrogators. During the investigation, the special team discovered that granthi Jagtar Singh had left for his house at 5:45 am and it was around 6:15 am that some womenfolk from the village reached the Gurudwara and saw that Sri Guru Granth Sahib had been desecrated. The cops found that between 5:45 am to 6:15 am, no one else visited the Gurudwara.
Following this, the cops asked Jagtar to give details about the Mukh Waak taken on Saturday and its page number. But he failed to share the details. He finally broke down and confessed that he had committed the desecration out of frustration and mental stress. He said he worked as truck driver and for the last many days he was fed up with the daily duties that he performed at the village Gurudwara. He even told the cops that he had left the door open so that people might think that desecration has been committed by some stray animal, the SSP said.
Raj Bachan said Jagtar was immediately arrested after a case under the relevant sections of the law was registered against him at the local police station.
