Chandigarh: A proclaimed offender (PO) and one of the key main conspirators behind five cases of sacrilege in 2015 in Punjab, Sandeep Bareta, was arrested from Bangalore airport when he was trying to flee to Singapore on Tuesday.
It may be recalled that the accused Bareta is a national committee member of Dera Sacha Sauda and there have been tensions between Dera and the Sikhs in Punjab since 2007 when Dera head Gurmeet Ram Rahim had allegedly imitated Guru Gobind Singh by dressing like him during a Dera ceremony.
How Punjab police nabbed Bareta
The Punjab police said in a Tweet that a police party had been rushed to Karnataka to get the accused for his production before a court and his subsequent interrogation.
The police had issued the lookout circular (LOC), against Bareta in 2021, in three interlinked sacrilege cases including Bargari town of Faridkot district, in which Dera head had also been named as the main conspirator.
Bareta involved in five sacrilege cases of 2015
Pertinently, Bareta’s arrest was seen to be crucial in the sacrilege cases as it would establish an evidence and link against the Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim, according to police. Bareta, according to information, was among three key conspirators in the five sacrilege cases of 2015.
The state police said that a team had been sent to Bangalore to bring Bareta to Faridkot on transit remand by Wednesday when he would be presented in a local court following which he would be interrogated for the cases as well as about the other absconding members of Dera in the cases.
Details of key accused
Among the three key accused in the cases, while Bareta is resident of village Bareta of Mansa district and Dhuri of Sangrur (both in Punjab), Kaler is a resident of Panipat, Haryana. They were said to be key conspirators behind the five sacrilege cases in Punjab that had triggered state-wide protests in Punjab and the issue had been a major political plank for all the ruling and opposition parties in the elections, since.
It may be recalled that the trial of the case is currently in Chandigarh now after the Supreme Court had transferred the trial of Dera head and seven others in the interlinked Bargari sacrilege cases from a Faridkot court to Chandigarh in February this year.
The police claimed that the instructions to execute the sacrilege at Bargari (Faridkot), in village Malke in Moga district and Gurusar village (Bathinda) had been given by Bareta, Kaler and Dhuri to the local Dera members in 2015.
