Chandigarh : In the backdrop of incidents of the desecration of a scripture, the Punjab Cabinet today gave its nod to make the law more stringent, providing for life imprisonment as maximum punishment for those convicted for acts of sacrilege.
“The Cabinet gave its green signal to introduce a new amended Section 295 AA in the Indian Penal Code 1860, which would provide punishment of life imprisonment for offenders committing heinous acts of sacrilege of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji.
“This step would act as a deterrent to prevent the recurrence of such unfortunate incidents in future. This amendment was all the more necessitated as the existing provisions of the said Act in Section 295, 295A and 296 though dealt with these matters but do not provide deterrent punishment for incidents related to sacrilege,” an official release giving details of the Cabinet decision, said here this evening. The maximum punishment in such cases earlier involved three years of imprisonment.The Cabinet meeting was held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. Welcoming the move, SAD’s alliance partner the BJP, said that they too had been demanding strict punishment for those found involved in acts of sacrilege involving the holy book.
“However, at the same time, we also want a similar law in place to deal with offenders who were found guilty of desecration involving the ‘Prana pratistha’ murtis (images/idols of gods),” BJP’s senior leader Tarun Chugh said. ‘Pran Pratishta’ refers to the ceremony by which a murti (image of a god) is consecrated in a temple. Notably, Punjab has recently been rocked by a series of incidents of sacrilege involving the holy book. The ruling SAD-BJP has been under attack from the opposition parties for failing to stop the acts of sacrilege as well as the degrading law and order situation in the state.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet also offered government jobs to son of Krishan Bhagwan Singh and the brother of Gurjit Singh. Both Krishan Bhagwan Singh and Gurjit Singh were killed during a protest against the incidents of desecration of holy book on October 14 at Faridkot.
