Almost a month after the police registered an FIR against 16 persons, including former and present officials of the SGPC, in connection with the 328 “missing” saroops of Guru Granth Sahib, the SGPC revealed the name of its three employees Kanwaljit Singh, Baj Singh and Dalbir Singh, stating that they were directly involved in misusing offerings related to the saroops and tampering with records.
The case was registered on a complaint filed by Gurlal Singh on December 7.
The war of words between the SGPC and AAP is indicating a constitutional crisis as the Sikh body today stressed that as per the directions of the Akal Takht, it will not cooperate with the police in the case pertaining to the saroops.
SGPC secretary Partap Singh, who revealed the names after chairing a meeting of the SGPC officials here on Tuesday, stated that a handful of employees for their greed had defamed the entire SGPC administration.
He asserted that in the matter of the 328 saroops, it would neither extend any cooperation to the police administration nor provide any records as per the directive of the Akal Takht.
Procedure of issuing saroops and how it was violated
As per the SGPC’s constitution, when devotees or gurdwara committees request for saroops, approval is granted by an officer at the secretary level after the verification of the preacher’s report and recommendation by a member of the SGPC. Thereafter, at the time of issuing the sacred saroop, the offering is deposited, a receipt issued and an entry is made in the records. Ignoring this process, the then employees posted in the publication department failed to discharge their responsibility. Being directly guilty, strict action was taken against them, and several senior officials also faced administrative action.
SGPC empowered to take action
The Sikh institution functions in accordance with the spirit of the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, and every employee working therein has defined responsibilities. If anyone shows negligence, it is the institution’s right to initiate departmental action against them as per the service rules.
SGPC’s publication department
Gurinder Singh, Gurnam Singh and Manjit Singh, former in-charges and joint secretaries of the publication department, a department of the SGPC which publishes saroops, stated that keeping in view the sanctity of the Guru Granth Sahib paramount, there is no system of any diary or receipts being given for releasing saroops