Badals facilitated pardon to dera head: Interim report

CHANDIGARH: Himmat Singh, brother of Damdama Sahib’s former jathedar Gurmukh Singh, has claimed before the Justice Ranjit Singh commission that it was at ex-chief minister Parkash Singh Badal’s official residence that the move to grant pardon Dera Sacha Sauda head by the Akal Takht was engineered in September 2015.
In its first interim report submitted to Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh, the commission has mentioned commission witness (CW) No.245, Himmat, had appeared before it on December 12, 2017. He has claimed that these events happened in his presence and alleged that pardon to the head of Dera Sacha Sauda Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, “who had the audacity to imitate 10th Guru Gobind Singh Ji, was at the instance of Badals.”
“Witness has mentioned that on 16.09.2015 all the jathedars of Takhts located in the state of Punjab were called to the official residence of chief minister Parkash Singh Badal,” the report reads. “CW-245 has stated the manner in which chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Singh Badal had organised the grant of pardon to the head of Dera Sacha Sauda, which as per him, had led to initiation of incident of sacrilege of the religious granths in the state,” it adds.
Himmat has submitted in his statement, “This meeting continued till late night. Daljit Singh Cheema, on the direction of Parkash Singh Badal, had read the letter written in Hindi wherein it was mentioned that Ram Rahim had sought pardon of the panth through his letter.”
When contacted, former education minister and SAD spokesperson Daljit Singh Cheema said, “The present Congress government is indulging in political drama by using the commission. We have already rejected the commission saying we do not believe this judge. We will reply on record in the vidhan sabha when the report is tabled there. The commission has become part of this political conspiracy to malign the Akali leadership and it is unfortunate.”
The report records Himmat’s statement: “Jathedars were to grant pardon to the head of Dera Sacha Sauda by withdrawing earlier hukumnama requiring Sikh Sangat to socially boycott him. In this meeting both the Badals forced the Jathedars to proceed to Akal Takht Sahib with directions for granting pardon to the head of Dera Sacha Sauda, by observing that it was being done after deep deliberations.”
The interim report adds, “CW-245 has stated that Giani Gurmukh Singh had opposed the grant of pardon to the head of Dera Sacha Sauda. Giani Gurmukh Singh had allegedly stated that because of the action of the head of Dera Sacha Sauda numerous persons had lost their lives and this pardon was being arranged to fulfil the dream of Sukhbir Singh Badal for ruling the state for 25 years. On the asking of Badals, Giani Gurbachan Singh Jathedar Akal Takht Sahib, and Giani Iqbal Singh Jathedar Takht Sri Patna Sahib pressurised Giani Gurmukh Singh to agree to the proposal of granting pardon to the head of Dera Sacha Sauda.”
As per the witness, the report says, he had received call on his mobile number 9xxxxxxxx13 from the phone number of personal secretary of deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal for talking to Giani Gurmukh Singh as his number was coming switched off. “Deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had steadily, thus, exerted pressure on Giani Gurmukh Singh. As per this witness, phone record in this regard can also be checked.”