Gurdwara Ramsar Sahib

Gurdwara Ramsar Sahib stands by the Ramsar tank on the edge of old Amritsar. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says the shrine marks the spot where Guru Arjan and Bhai Gurdas worked on the Adi Granth, now Sri Guru Granth Sahib, in a tent pitched in a thickly wooded place. By the Encyclopaedia’s dates Bhai Gurdas had finished writing by 1 August 1604 and the volume was installed in the Harimandar on 16 August 1604. The SGPC’s publication department is also here; The Tribune calls Ramsar Sahib the designated place to publish and store holy books.

Key moments

• May 2016: a fire in the publication department. Kanwaljit Singh, then its assistant supervisor, later said about 80 saroops (bound copies) were damaged; the SGPC said only 14 were damaged and the rest were misappropriated (The Tribune).
• 31 May to July 2020: Kanwaljit Singh retired on 31 May and disclosed missing saroops. The SGPC counted 267 missing between 18 September 2015 and 31 May 2020. In July the Akal Takht sealed the department’s records from April 2015 and named a panel under retired Justice Navita Singh, assisted by advocate Ishar Singh.
• 24 August 2020: the five high priests said the panel found 328 saroops misappropriated, 61 more than the SGPC’s count, from the 2013-14 and 2014-15 ledgers. It also feared at least 125 more had been put together from surplus printed pages and issued without receipts. They held the SGPC officials and staff concerned accountable.
• 7 December 2025: Punjab Police registered an FIR against 16 people on a complaint alleging sacrilege of saroops from 19 May 2016. SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami said the Akal Takht’s report had called the matter misappropriation of money by employees, not sacrilege, and accused the state government of interfering.
• January to April 2026: Kanwaljit Singh, who first raised the matter, was arrested by the police special investigation team as a main accused. On 18 April a court gave him default bail because no chargesheet had been filed after more than 100 days. He has not been convicted.

What it means today. The Panth’s scripture was first prepared at this shrine, and the department that prints and stores its saroops sits beside it. The case remains open: the police, the SGPC and the Akal Takht describe it differently, and the sources opened do not report a trial.