Bhaniarawala and seven followers sentenced over sacrilege cases

Who: Baba Piara Singh Bhaniarawala, head of a dera at Bhaniara near Nurpur Bedi in Ropar district, who died on 30 December 2019 aged 61, and seven followers: Harjit Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Surmukh Singh, Surjit Singh, Bhupinder Singh, Ashok Kumar and Rajinder Singh. The Tribune says the Akal Takht, under Jathedar Bhai Ranjit Singh, excommunicated him in 1998.

What: In 2001 his dera brought out the Bhavsagar Granth. In September 2001, Wikipedia says, the Khalsa Action Force attacked a ceremony of his followers and burned the book, and copies of the Guru Granth Sahib were then burned in rural gurdwaras. The Tribune says his followers were accused of burning birs of the Guru Granth Sahib in Ropar and Fatehgarh Sahib, that the book was banned, and that he was arrested under the National Security Act in September 2001 and held for nine months.

Two FIRs were registered at Morinda police station in 2001 by the Ropar police against him and 15 followers. The complaint came from Major Singh, sarpanch of Rattangarh village, who accused the Baba of stealing a Guru Granth Sahib from a village gurdwara; the Tribune says police recovered pages 91 to 157 of it. On the High Court's directions the cases were moved to Ambala.

On 10 May 2013 Chief Judicial Magistrate A. K. Jain of Ambala held Bhaniarawala and seven followers guilty in the two cases of hurting the religious sentiments of Sikhs. Five others were acquitted for want of evidence, and two accused had died during the trial. On 13 May he sentenced each of the eight to three years' imprisonment; the Tribune reported no fine. They were released on bail pending an appeal in the sessions court, with a surety of Rs 40,000 and a bond of the same amount each. A group of Sikhs outside the court raised slogans against the “spiritual guru”. Back at his dera that evening Bhaniarawala appealed for calm, said he would move the higher courts, and said he had “full faith in the judicial system”.

Where: The court at Ambala, for burnings alleged in Ropar and Fatehgarh Sahib.

Why it mattered: The sentence came about 12 years after the FIRs of 2001, and not every case against him ended that way: in May 2003 a sessions court acquitted him and two others, for lack of proof, over an alleged arson of a gurdwara at Tarkhan Majra, and about two months before the verdict he and 23 followers got relief in another alleged sacrilege case, the Tribune says. The sources we opened do not say how the appeal ended.