SGPC using Akal Takht as shield to protect its ‘masters’: Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann

Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday accused the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee of failing to find the 328 missing saroops (sacred copies) of Sikh holy book Guru Granth Sahib, and accused it of “using the Akal Takht as a shield” to protect its “masters”.

Mann’s statements come a day after the five Singh Sahiban, or heads of the five Sikh temporal seats, asked the AAP government to stop meddling in the internal matter of Sikhs or face action in accordance with Panthic traditions, after the Amritsar Police registered an FIR against 16 persons, including a former SGPC chief secretary on December 7 this year, over the disappearance of the saroops in 2020.

Addressing mediapersons in Chandigarh on Monday, Mann said the FIR was filed after several Sikh bodies demanded a thorough probe to find the missing saroops. He also asked the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to cooperate with the investigation.

For the last few years, Punjabis in general and the Sangat (Sikh spiritual collective) were in deep anguish as no action has been taken to find the missing saroops, he said.

“The Panthic organisations and Sant Samaj have since long demanded action in the matter and even approached the state government. As its moral responsibility, the Punjab government lodged an FIR and constituted a special investigation team,” Mann said.

But immediately after the FIR, Mann said, the SGPC, “on the directions of its masters”, started holding press meets and “spitting venom” against the state government for interfering in religious matters.

“The SGPC chief himself admitted that 10-20 scams occur daily in the apex gurdwara body, indicating gross misuse of Golak (cash box) money offered by devotees,” he said.

Pointing to an earlier SGPC resolution, the CM claimed that it had once advocated legal action into the missing saroops. “The interim committee of SGPC, in a 2020 meeting, had passed a resolution for severe action against its erring employees and publishers,” Mann said.

Surprisingly, no action was taken, he said.

Mann said the SGPC had passed a resolution to register criminal cases against individuals including former chief secretary Roop Singh. It had even decided to terminate all services of a chartered accountancy firm and recover 75 per cent of payments made to it. But as the firm renders services to Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Singh Badal, the SGPC put the resolutions on the back burner, he said.