Tribune News Service

Faridkot, May 26

Shakti Singh, Ranjit Singh, alias Bhola and Pardeep Kumar, alias Raju, three of the six arrested Dera Sacha Sauda followers and accused in sacrilege cases, have moved an application in the court of the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMIC), Faridkot, here alleging that officials in the special investigation team (SIT) of the police were threatening them to wrongfully confess guilt.

In their application in the court, the accused dera followers alleged the SIT members were threatening them to confess their guilt by recording a statement before the court. “We are being threatened that if a confessional statement was not recorded by us, we and our family members will have to face inhuman physical torture and we will be done to death in judicial custody,” alleged the accused in their application to the court.

While the SIT members denied making any comment on the allegation, saying they will not speak to media as per the High Court orders, the accused in their application in the court claimed they had not committed the alleged offence and were innocent.

“We do not want to make any confessional statement but we are being wrongfully coerced by the SIT officials. So the necessary intimation is being given to the court with the request to save us from physical and mental torture by SIT officials to avoid any forced involuntary confessional statement,” the accused wrote to the court.

For the offence of pasting derogatory posters near a gurdwara at Bargari village in 2015, the JMIC on Wednesday allowed two-day extension in police remand of two of the accused.

On May 16, the newly constituted SIT had arrested six dera followers for allegedly scattering torn pages of a ‘bir’ of Guru Granth Sahib, which was stolen from the Burj Jawahar Singh Wala gurdwara on June 1, 2015. While three of the arrested dera followers are under treatment at Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital after they tested positive for Covid-19, the SIT arrested Ranjit Singh and Shakti Singh in another case of pasting derogatory posters near the gurdwara.

‘Under pressure’

In their application to the court, the dera followers have alleged they are being threatened if a confessional statement is not recorded, they and their family members will have to face torture and death in judicial custody