Punjab Police red-faced after finding man caught at Bengaluru not Sandeep Bareta

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Punjab Police were left red-faced on Wednesday when their team reached Bengaluru to take custody of wanted Bargari sacrilege accused Sandeep Bareta only to find on verification that the man detained at the airport was Sandeep Mannan, who belonged to Delhi and was working in a tech company in Karnataka.

Sandeep Mannan (left), who belongs to Delhi and works in a tech company in Bengaluru, was detained on Monday night and (right) Sandeep Bareta, wanted by Punjab Police in connection with the sacrilege cases of 2015. The Bengaluru airport authorities detained Sandeep Mannan as his first name, father’s name, and birth year matched with Bareta’s as mentioned in the lookout circular. (HT Photos)
Sandeep Mannan (left), who belongs to Delhi and works in a tech company in Bengaluru, was detained on Monday night and (right) Sandeep Bareta, wanted by Punjab Police in connection with the sacrilege cases of 2015. The Bengaluru airport authorities detained Sandeep Mannan as his first name, father’s name, and birth year matched with Bareta’s as mentioned in the lookout circular. (HT Photos)

On Tuesday, Punjab Police claimed on its official Twitter handle that Bareta, one of the three absconding Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda national committee members who was involved in conspiring the five sacrilege incidents, was caught trying to flee to Singapore. The arrest of the accused, who was on the run for five years, was tweeted by Punjab Police along with Mannan’s photo. The arrest was confirmed by Faridkot police and the police’s special investigation team (SIT) probing the sacrilege cases.

On Wednesday, however, Faridkot range inspector general of police PK Yadav clarified: “A communication from the immigration authorities at Bengaluru airport was received regarding the detention of Sandeep, matching the description of sacrilege accused Sandeep Bareta, on the basis of the look out circular (LOC) issued by Faridkot police. The matter was promptly verified. It has been found that the detained person at Bengaluru airport is not the wanted sacrilege accused Sandeep Bareta. He is Sandeep Mannan, a resident of New Delhi who works in a tech company in Bengaluru.”

Matching and misleading

An official on condition of anonymity said that the Bengaluru airport detained Sandeep as his first name, father’s name, and birth year matched with Sandeep Bareta’s as mentioned in the look out circular. “But the address of the detained man was of Delhi, while Bareta, who belongs to Bareta in Mansa district, was living in Sirsa, Haryana, before he went underground,” the official added.

The Faridkot police team that reached Bengaluru on Wednesday morning to bring back the accused were told that after verification, they found the man detained by the Bengaluru authorities was not Bareta, who was wanted in five 2015 sacrilege cases, including the Bargari incident.

ADGP Surinder Pal Singh Parmar, who heads the SIT probing the three interlinked sacrilege cases of Faridkot, was upbeat about bringing the accused to Punjab by Wednesday evening. He claimed it was a goof-up by the Bengaluru police when they did not issue any statement but only alerted their Punjab counterparts about Sandeep’s details matching those of Bareta’s.

The police jumped the gun and confirmed the arrest on social media even before their team could reach Bengaluru and identify the Singapore-bound person.

According to the SIT probe, the three members of the dera’s national committee, Sandeep Bareta, a resident of Bareta in Mansa district, Pardeep Kler of Panipat and Harsh Dhuri of Dhuri in Sangrur district, are key links in Punjab’s five sacrilege incidents that sparked off statewide protests in 2015. Bareta, Kler and Dhuri have been declared proclaimed offenders in the cases.

Punjab Police had issued an LOC against Bareta, Kler and Dhuri in three sacrilege cases, including Bargari, in which dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was named main conspirator in November 2021.

The SIT probing the sacrilege cases claims to have found that the instructions to execute the sacrilege at Bargari, Moga and Gurusar were given by Bareta, Kler and Dhuri, to the district dera committee members. “In the Bargari sacrilege, the instructions to steal a ‘bir’ and then commit sacrilege came through the three. “The trio had met dera follower Mohinder Pal Bittu and instructed him for the theft and sacrilege,” the SIT said.

The SIT found that the conspiracy of desecration of Sikh scriptures was hatched at the administrative block of Dera Sacha Sauda in Sirsa and that the followers never acted without the permission of sect head Ram Rahim. The SIT has filed chargesheets against Ram Rahim in the three cases, naming him main conspirator.

An official familiar with the investigation said that the three dera national committee members are the missing link in the sacrilege cases. “The accused who had committed the sacrilege never got instructions directly from Ram Rahim as they were relayed by the trio,” he said.

Sacrilege that triggered outrage

The ‘bir’ was stolen from Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village gurdwara on June 1, 2015. An FIR was registered the next day at Bajakhana police station. Three derogatory posters threatening sacrilege were pasted at Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala villages on September 24-25, 2015 following which an FIR was registered. On October 12, 2015, torn pages of the ‘bir’ were found scattered in front of a gurdwara in the adjoining Bargari village, resulting in an outrage across the state and the killing of two Sikh protesters in firing.

The trio, including Bareta, was named as accused in the Malke (Moga) and Gurusar (Bathinda) cases. Torn pages of Guru Granth Sahib were found at Malke village in Moga district in November 2015 and Gurusar (Bhagta) village in Bathinda district in October 2015.

Last year, three dera followers were convicted and sentenced for three years imprisonment in Malke sacrilege case.

In 2018, then DIG (now retired) Ranbir Singh Khatra-led SIT had arrested more than 20 dera followers, including Mohinder Pal Bittu who was killed in the Nabha jail in 2019, in connection with the sacrilege incidents and rioting in Punjab in 2015.


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