Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi said on Friday there is no evidence to suggest there was a sacrilege bid in the state’s Kapurthala, where a man was accused by a mob of trying to remove a holy flag of the Sikhs at a gurdwara and beaten to death.
“In Kapurthala, there is no evidence that sacrilege was done. The matter is being probed… The FIR will be amended,” Charanjit Singh Channi said during a press conference in Chandigarh.
The unidentified man was beaten to death at Nizampur in Kapurthala district for allegedly disrespecting the ‘Nishan Sahib’ at the village Gurudwara on December 19. Videos of people beating up the man who allegedly attempted sacrilege have gone viral on the internet.
GS Dhillon, inspector general of police (Jalandhar Range), has also said there was no visible sign of sacrilege according to their investigation and the police are investigating the allegations.
Officials said on Thursday the autopsy of the unidentified man killed over alleged sacrilege in Kapurthala shows he was attacked with a sharp weapon.
“It has been revealed in the postmortem that he was attacked over with a sharp weapon leading to multiple injuries. There are over 30 sharp cut marks on the body including neck, head and hip,” executive senior medical officer (SMO) Dr Narinder Singh was quoted as saying by news agency on Thursday.
“We have taken DNA samples for identification of the body,” he added.
The man was cremated by the Municipal Corporation after the postmortem.
The incident in Kapurthala took place a day after another man was beaten to death at the Golden Temple in Amritsar after an alleged sacrilege attempt.
They have led to a war of words in the poll-bound state, where sacrilege is an emotional issue.
After Channi’s press conference, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal alleged there was a conspiracy behind the recent cases of sacrilege and the explosion in a court in Ludhiana. The Delhi chief minister also said the “weak government” ruling Punjab has failed to crack the whip.
“A few days ago, there were cases of sacrilege. Now, there is a blast in Ludhiana. Such incidents before polls are being done under a conspiracy to vitiate the peaceful atmosphere in the state. It is the handiwork of a few people,” Kejriwal said during an interaction with reporters in Amritsar.
He said he has full faith in the people of Punjab and that they will defeat the nefarious designs of those trying to foment tension.