Amritsar: On the night of June 2, a man identified as Gurpreet Singh, a resident of Amritsar, was arrested after he tore pages of the holy Gutka Sahib (a collection of prayers from the Gurbani) outside Sri Harmandir Sahib.
The police said Gurpreet brought Gutkas of Sukhmani Sahib from Gurdwara Shaheed Ganj, which is located near the shrine, around 10 PM on Monday, and started tearing pages near Guru Arjan Dev Niwas, one of the serais in the Golden Temple complex. When devotees noticed him committing the sacrilege, they caught and thrashed him before Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) employees took him into their custody.
So far, he has not given any reason for his actions. The police have started investigating the matter and have recorded his statement.
After questioning him for an hour, SGPC members handed him over to the Punjab Police. “The accused has been booked under relevant sections at Kotwali police station. We are questioning him,” Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP) Jasroop Kaur Baath said.
ADCP Jasroop Baath stated that the police took immediate action as soon as the information was received. A case has been registered against the accused and an investigation is underway. Currently, security arrangements have been tightened in the city considering the sensitivity of the situation.
Commissionerate Police Amritsar has taken immediate action against an individual who attempted to commit sacrilege of the Gutka Sahib by taking him into custody and registering a case. Considering the seriousness of the matter, a special investigation team has been formed, which… pic.twitter.com/hDSyfpFvhB
— Commissionerate Police Amritsar (@cpamritsar) June 3, 2025
The incident comes amid heightened security ahead of the 41st anniversary of Operation Bluestar on June 6. Members of Sikh organisations gathered in the Golden temple premises after the incident and demanded stringent punishment for the accused.
Condemning the incident, SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami said, “The Bhagwant Mann-led AAP Government has failed to stop sacrilege incidents and unearth the conspiracy behind them. It only takes routine action. Perpetrators of sacrilege deserve capital punishment. Unless the punishment is made stricter, these incidents cannot be stopped. Recently, a man guilty of sacrilege at Takht Kesgarh Sahib at Sri Anandpur Sahib was awarded five years in jail. This is not enough. The government should amend the law and make provisions for the death sentence for those accused of sacrilege.”
Another incident of sacrilege occurred in April 2023 in Punjab, in which a Sikh man entered a Gurdwara wearing shoes and started beating the granthis reciting from the Shri Guru Granth Sahib. The incident took place at Morinda in Ropar district. After the incident, the people present in the Gurdwara caught the youth and thrashed him for his sacrilegious act.
It is to be noted that in December 2021, a youth was beaten to death by the sangat and sewadars at the Golden Temple after he jumped in front of the Guru Granth Sahib in the sanctum sanctorum of the Golden Temple during the recital of Rehras Sahib (evening prayers). He scaled the railing as the devotees watched in horror, stepped on the Rumala Sahib (cloth covering the holy book), and picked up the sword placed in front of it, disrupting religious services.
The Punjab Government has consistently failed to prevent incidents of beadbi (sacrilege), despite repeated occurrences that have deeply hurt the religious sentiments of the Sikh community. Instead of taking strong preventive and investigative measures, the administration has often reacted in a routine and delayed manner. The lack of stringent punishment, effective surveillance around religious places, and failure to unearth the larger conspiracies behind these sacrilegious acts have emboldened miscreants. As a result, such incidents are creating an atmosphere of anger, unrest, and distrust among the devotees.
