Akal Takht Sahib declares SAD president Sukhbir Badal guilty of religious misconduct

The allegations against Badal included the revocation of the blasphemy case against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim for imitating Guru Gobind Singh in 2007. (File Photo: PTI)

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal was on Friday found guilty of violating the religious code of conduct of Sikhism by the Akal Takht Sahib, the apex body of Sikhs, for the mistakes committed by the SAD and its government between 2007 and 2017.

Jathedar Giani Raghubir Singh, the leader of the highest temporal seat of Sikhs, declared him ‘tankhayia’ one guilty of violating the Sikh religious code, after a meeting of the five Jathedars at Akal Takht Sahib today.

Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh asked Badal to appear before the Akal Takht Sahib within 15 days. He will be sentenced once he appears before the apex body of Sikhs.

“Being the deputy chief minister of Punjab and president of the Shiromani Akali Dal, Sukhbir Singh Badal took such decisions that deeply harmed the image of the Panth and greatly weakened the SAD. This damaged Sikh interests, too,” Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh said, pronouncing the verdict from the Takht in the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar.

The allegations against Badal included the revocation of the blasphemy case against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim for imitating Guru Gobind Singh in 2007. The Akal Takht bars Sikhs from having any relationship with Dera Sacha Sauda, the SAD(B) got political support from Dera under Sukhbir Singh Badal’s presidency.

Other accusations included the failure to punish perpetrators of the Bargari sacrilege and police officials for the Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan firing incidents; allowing the appointment of controversial IPS officer Sumedh Singh Saini as the Punjab DGP besides giving Farzana Alam, the wife of controversial police officer Izhar Alam, the party ticket in the 2012 assembly elections and appointing her chief parliamentary secretary; and failing to deliver justice to victims in fake encounter cases.

Soon after the Akal Takht pronounced the edict, the SAD announced that it accepts the directives in all humility. The Akal Takht has asked Sikh ministers during the tenures of the SAD- BJP government to provide an explanation for their role in serious mistakes committed during the two terms.

SAD vice-president Daljit Singh Cheema said in a video message that the party bows before the edict and would act accordingly. He said that Sukhbir Singh Badal had appeared before Akal Takht last month and accepted his government’s mistakes. He said Badal announced that the orders of the supreme temporal seat would be followed in true spirit.

On July 25, the SAD president appeared before the Takht and accepted the “mistakes” and tendered an unconditional apology in his explanation letter.