Golden Offset Press

Golden Offset Press is the SGPC's printing press at Gurdwara Ramsar Sahib, Amritsar. ThePrint reported in September 2020 that the SGPC prints saroops of Sri Guru Granth Sahib there and stores them at Guru Granth Sahib Bhawan. It enters the record through the missing saroops case, and through a fire at the publication branch at Ramsar Sahib in May 2016. The reports opened here do not name the press itself as the site of the fire.

The fire, and three counts of the damage

• 19 May 2016: a fire at the SGPC's publication branch at Ramsar Sahib, described in the Akal Takht panel's report, The Tribune said, as reportedly caused by short circuiting.
• The SGPC claimed in July 2020 that only 14 saroops were damaged and the rest were misappropriated. The Tribune did not name the official who said this.
• Kanwaljit Singh, who retired from the publication department on 31 May 2020, claimed at least 80 saroops were damaged. The Akal Takht's three-member committee, led by advocate Ishar Singh, also said 80 were burnt, and that the SGPC played the matter down (ThePrint). The reports do not reconcile 14 and 80.

Key moments

• 6 July 2020: Ludhiana MLA Balwinder Singh Bains complained to the Amritsar police about 267 missing saroops.
• 24 August 2020: the committee's 1,000-page report found at least 328 saroops missing from the publication department in 2013-14 and 2014-15, said the records were kept "very poorly", and indicted 16 SGPC employees, among them chief secretary Roop Singh, who resigned (ThePrint). The five high priests said the panel feared at least 125 saroops had been compiled from pages that should have been discarded and issued without receipts. The Tribune reported that the publication department carried out no audit after 2016.
• 6 September 2020: SGPC president Gobind Singh Longowal announced that no FIR would be lodged, saying the SGPC did not want interference from an outside agency.
• 7 December 2025: Amritsar police registered an FIR against 16 people after a complaint that came from Bhai Baldev Singh Wadala, The Tribune reported. SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami called the matter misappropriation of records and criticised the Punjab government for political interference.

What it means to the Panth. The press is where the Panth's scriptures are made, and the case asks who answers when they cannot be accounted for. Sarbjit Singh Verka of the Punjab Human Rights Organisation alleged that some saroops reached VIPs outside the official procedure. That is his allegation, not a finding.