CHANDIGARH, Punjab—The Punjab police have claimed of cracking the recent Malerkotla sacrilege incident by claiming it as the incident “of an accidental fire which the Granthi reportedly tried to cover up with a concocted story of a break-in for fear of being blamed of negligence and losing his job”.
A press note by the Punjab CM office claims that the fire forensic experts from Chandigarh, Ludhiana and Sangrur have cracked this case. “An expert team from Mumbai, led by Gopal Relkar, which was flown in today by the Punjab Police,” reads the press note.
“The Granthi, Joga Singh, confessed to having cooked up the Darbar Hall break-in story when confronted with the forensic and circumstantial evidence. He told the investigators that he was afraid of being blamed of negligence by the villagers and of being discharged from service, the sole source of income for his family of four, by the gurdwara management committee. The thought of radicals, many of whom had also reached the gurdwara, exploiting the situation to their benefit also prompted him to come clean,” reads the press note.
The press note further reads that the Granthi got scared after arrival of a heavy police force into Gurdwara Sahib and confessed to the president of the Local Management Committee. “He told the president that he had installed the temporary fan, which had led to the fire, and also showed the police the half burnt cloth and the fan motor which he had tried to hide in the rear compound of his house in the Gurdwara complex,” reads the press note.
According to a police spokesperson, investigations had revealed that the fire broke out accidentally due to overheating of a wall fan inside the sanctum sanctorum of the Gurdwara in Hathoa village. The PVC casing of the fan caught fire, which in turn set aflame the orange `parna’ with which the wall fan had been tied to the Palki Sahib pillar. Both the fan and the parna fell on the carpet, which also caught fire that spread to the Birh of Guru Granth Sahib ji, causing it get singed.
