The truth in the Kapurthala lynching case is out. And as it turns out there was no sacrilege attempt. It was not a case of a man being killed by a frenzied mob that is not in itself a defence to an act of homicide, but a murder.
What had happened:
On December 18, there was an alleged attempt at sacrilege in the Golden Temple. The man alleged to have committed the act of sacrilege was lynched to death.
A day later, that is, on December 19, another purported sacrilege-related lynching took place in Punjab’s Kapurthala. The man was killed on the allegation of trying to disrespect the Nishan Sahib. A video of people beating up the man, who died later, went viral on the internet.
Tempers ran high after the two incidents. Politicians in the state condemned the alleged act of lynching but said nothing else and in fact, absolutely nothing about the gruesome lynchings.
Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu went as far as saying, “Conspiracy going on to disrupt Punjab’s peace.”
Wherever sacrilege takes place, be it of Quran Sharif or Bhagavad Gita or Guru Granth Sahib, the guilty should be hanged in public and given biggest Constitutional punishment.”
People like UK MP Preet Gill went even further. The legislator portrayed the incident as a Hindu terror act. The British MP had tweeted, “Hindu terrorist prevented from an act of violence at the Sikh holy shrine of Harminder Sahib, (Golden Temple against Sikhs). She later deleted the tweet.
The police filed a case under Section 295-A (hurting religious sentiments) against the deceased, though if the dead man was tried, he wouldn’t have been able to give a defence. For several days, murder charges weren’t added to the FIR.
The truth of Kapurthala:
There was no sacrilege. The unidentified youth who was killed is suspected of being a migrant labourer. An autopsy report showed 30 wounds in his body. The injuries are mostly sharp and deep cuts, suspected to have been inflicted by a sword, on the neck, hips and head of the deceased.
Police have now booked granthi Amarjit Singh, on whose statement, charges of hurting religious sentiment were registered earlier.
Police have also booked another 100 unidentified people, including 25-30 “accomplices” of Amarjit Singh. The police officials have also recovered a pistol used in a firing incident that day.
Amarjit has been sent to two-days police remand. In 2016, the murder accused had faced a case of a stolen car. However, the case was cancelled in 2019 and the car remained untraced.
The unidentified youth was lynched after Amarjit alleged that he was caught trying to desecrate the Nishan Sahib in the wee hours. He made three videos with such allegations, with different versions of what had happened. The videos had gone viral and in one of them, he urged Sikhs to assemble and punish the youth before handing him over to the administration.
The frenzied mob beat up the youth in presence of senior police officers, including Kapurthala Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Harkamalpreet Singh Khakh. The mob also refused to hand over the man to the police. Police are now also looking at the possibility of a conspiracy to “sensationalise” the issue of sacrilege.
Khakh told The Print that he did not have enough information to comment on why gurudwara in charge Amarjit Singh would have claimed that sacrilege was involved.
The SSP said, “We only know that he does not have much faith in the police. He has been objecting to the presence of a police post near his gurudwara. Apart from that, all we know is that he has been regularly leading jathas (groups) from Punjab to visit Sikh shrines in Pakistan.”
Sowing seeds of communal discord:
So, why will anyone kill an innocent man with a make-believe allegation of sacrilege? This sounds like premeditated and merciless murder.
Punjab has a past of communal tensions and unrest, despite a long tradition of Hindu-Sikh unity and the rich culture of Punjabi generosity. And it seems that elements are trying to sow seeds of communal discord all over again.
With Assembly elections around the corner, there is also an angle of communal polarization. A narrative of Sikhism being under threat is created. And the issue of sacrilege is being drummed up to drive radicalism and extreme religiosity.
The state of Punjab needs strong leadership to fight such extremist powers. The Kapurthala case itself doesn’t seem to be handled very well. The murder charge was added several days later, and seriously what is the rationale of charging a dead person with hurting religious sentiments? Amarjit Singh too should have been arrested immediately.
Anyhow, the truth is out and it deletes the allegation of sacrilege in the Kapurthala lynching.