Panchayat members of Panjgrain Khurd village along with local residents and activists of several Sikh organisations today passed a resolution demanding the release of two brothers held for the sacrilege incident at Bargarhi village in Faridkot.
A local court remanded Rupinder Singh and Jaswinder Singh in police custody until October 26 on Wednesday. Whereabouts of two other suspects — Amanderp Singh and Gurlal Singh — remain unknown.
A meeting was held at a local gurdwara. The panchayat members offered Ardas for the well being of the arrested youths — Rupinder Singh and Jaswinder Singh. They decided to provide moral, monetary and legal help to them.
Claiming that the two brothers — Rupinder Singh and Jaswinder Singh — arrested by the police on the charge of sacrilege of the ‘bir’ of Guru Granth Sahib at Bargarhi village (Faridkot district) were innocent, the residents of Panjgrain Khurd — the native village of these youths — in Moga district have demanded a CBI inquiry into the allegations levelled against them.
Talking to the media, sarpanch Baldev Singh alleged the police did not inform him about the arrests. “The police neither discussed this issue with the panchayat nor allowed us to meet the arrested youths,” he said.
He claimed the brothers were innocent and had been made scapegoat by the government and the police. The youths’ father Darshan Singh alleged the police had implicated his sons in a false case. “It is a bigger conspiracy hatched by local politicians and the police,” he alleged.
The sarpanch criticised Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for claiming that the youths had confessed to the “crime” in the presence of village panchayat.
Activists of various panthic organisations, including Panthpreet Singh Khalsa, Daljit Singh Bittu and others assembled at the gurdwara and decided to launch an agitation against the government till the youths are released.
Later, the gathering staged a protest by blocking the Moga-Kotkapura national highway for several hours. Renowned Sikh activist and lawyer HS Phoolka, Giani Kewal Singh, Panthpreet Singh Khalsa, Daljit Singh Bittu and other Sikh activists led the protest and appealed to the Sikh community to express their solidarity with the arrested youths.
Protests in Moga: Sikh activists held protests against the SAD-BJP government at the main square in the city on the Moga-Ferozepur highway, Dagru village, main square at Baghapurana town, at Rode on the Moga-Kotkapura highway and at Pangrain Khurd village. They too demanded the release of Sikh youths arrested by the police on the charges of sacrilege.