A Special Investigation Team was formed on Sunday to inquire into the alleged attempt to commit sacrilege at the Golden Temple in Punjab’s Amritsar city on Saturday, PTI reported.
The man had entered the Golden Temple shrine by jumping over a metal grill and tried to pick up a kirpan (ceremonial sword) kept in front of the Sikh holy text Guru Granth Sahib. Police said that he was escorted by devotees to the corridors, where a violent altercation took place leading to the man’s death.
The police are yet to ascertain the identity of the man.
On Sunday, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa held a meeting with Punjab’s deputy commissioner of police, the police commissioner, and the inspector general of police and Amritsar rural senior superintendent of police, following which the Special Investigation Team was formed.
The special team has been asked to submit a report on the assault in two days.
“No mobile phone, no purse, no identity card or Aadhaar Card was found on him,” Randhawa said on Sunday. “It has been established that he entered [the Golden Temple complex] around 11 am and remained there for a few hours until the incident.”
Meanwhile, Amritsar Police Commissioner Sukchain Singh Gill on Sunday said that the man who died has been booked under Indian Penal Code sections 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class) and 307 (attempt to murder), PTI reported.
Gill said that the police’s primary focus was to establish the identity of the accused person. They are also trying to ascertain if anyone was accompanying him.
“We are scanning the CCTV footage to see which route he took to reach the golden temple,” Gill said.
Meanwhile, the deputy chief minister has said that the death of the man has made the investigation into the case difficult, The Indian Express reported.
“The accused [person] slept outside Akal Takht Sahib during his stay inside the Golden Temple premises, before committing the sacrilege,” he said. “There must be something behind this incident. We have been trying to retrace his movement in Amritsar. He entered the Golden Temple alone.”
Randhawa has also said that the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, which manages gurdwaras in Punjab, could form an intelligence wing to investigate the case, PTI reported. He has also asked the police to provide round-the-clock security to all the gurdwaras, temples, mosques, churches and other religious places in Punjab.
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