Jalandhar, Punjab: Amid reports of placing shortly at some religious places, the holy book “Amritbani Satguru Ravidass Maharajji” of the newly declared religion “Ravidass Dharam” by Dera Sachkhand Ballan a few days back, the district police arrested 10 leaders belonging to the Ravidass community from their houses in the wee hours today.
Confirming the arrests, DC Ajit Singh Pannu told The Tribune that the suspected persons had been taken into custody as they were planning to remove Guru Granth Sahib forcibly from some religious places due to which the feelings of a community could have been hurt.
In reply to a question, he said more persons planning to do the same would be arrested soon. He asked this correspondent to contact SSP RK Jaiswal for further details, but the latter could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.
Most of the arrested persons belong to the BSP and Ambedkar Sena (Mool Niwasi). All these persons were taken to Sadar police station after taking them into custody from their respective houses located in different parts of the district.
However, later some persons were released whereas three are still in police custody. According to police sources, the three persons including Ambedkar Sena (Mool Niwasi) state president Harbhajan Suman, its activist Brajesh Kumar Gauri and a local BSP leader Sukhwinder Tony have been booked under Sections 153 A, 295, 295 A and 120 B of IPC.
The police sources further said the places of several other Ravidassis allegedly instigating their community members were also being raided to arrest them.
One of the released persons, Sukhwinder Kotli, state general secretary of the BSP and sarpnach of Kotli Than Singh, told The Tribune a police party including Sadar SHO raided his house at around 4 am. They were asked to accompany them on the pretext of their meeting with some senior police officials.
Later he and some other persons including Dharampal Lesriwal were released after other BSP leaders met the DC and the SSP in this regard.
Criticising the Parkash Singh Badal-led SAD-BJP government for harassing Ravidass community members, Kotli said they would soon react according to the future course of action being decided by BSP state president and Rajya Sabha member Avtar Singh Karimpuri.
