Faridkot, May 17

The new special investigation team (SIT) of the Punjab Police today produced the six Dera Sacha Sauda followers, who were arrested yesterday in connection with a sacrilege case, in a local court, which remanded them in four-day police custody.

Earlier, counsels for the dera followers — Sukhjinder Singh Sunny, Shakti Singh, Ranjit Singh, Baljeet Singh, Nishan Singh and Pardeep Singh — opposed their remand, saying the SIT had no fresh evidence against them and that they had already been granted bail in one of the three sacrilege cases of 2015.

The new SIT, headed by IGP Surinder Singh Parmar, is investigating three FIRs pertaining to the sacrilege incidents of 2015 at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala and Bargari villages in Farikdot, which had led to protests and subsequent police firing at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan in October 2015.

The SIT was constituted following the January 4 orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court after one of the accused, Sunny, accused the head of the earlier SIT, Ranbir Singh Khatra, of bias. In June 2018, Sunny was arrested by the Moga police, which claimed he had confessed to his and other suspects’ role in the sacrilege incidents. — TNS