[2015 Bargari Sacrilege] Supreme Court allows transfer of trial against Gurmeet Ram Rahim and 7 Dera followers to Chandigarh

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed that the trial against Dera Sacha Sauda leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim and seven other Dera followers in three cases of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib at Bargari in 2015 be transferred from Punjab’s Faridkot to Chandigarh.

The transfer petitions were filed by five Dera followers in December 2022 after six unidentified assailants on three motorcycles reportedly shot to death a co-accused on November 10.

A division bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sudhanshu Dhulia accepted the petitioner's plea, who argued that there was a heightened threat to their lives.

Notably, a series of desecration incidents took place in the state of Punjab that began with the theft of a copy of the Guru Granth Sahib from a gurdwara in Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village of Faridkot in June 2015.

Subsequently, in September, handwritten sacrilegious posters against the holy book sprung up in Jawahar Singh Wala and Bargari villages in Faridkot.

Later several torn angs (pages) of the book were found strewn near a gurudwara in Bargari in October 2015. As a result, massive protests erupted in the state.

The investigation was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation in November by the then coalition government of Shiromani Akali Dal and BJP. In June 2019, the federal agency filed a closure report revealing that no incriminating evidence was found against followers of the Dera Sacha Sauda cult.

Self-styled Godman Ram Rahim was nominated as the key conspirator by the police. The trial in all three cases was pending in Faridkot court before it was transferred on Tuesday.

Case Title: Sukhjinder Singh @ Sunny & Ors. vs. State of Punjab