Jalandhar, Granthi attacked

JALANDHAR: July 9th, 2008

Granthi Attacked

To the rude shock of devotees, a man attacked the 'granthi' inside a gurdwara at Preet Nagar while the latter was delivering a religious discourse on Tuesday morning.

The assailant, Gautam Sharma, was immediately arrested. Police officials said the accused entered the gurdwara around 9am and told granthi Jasbir Singh that he wanted to speak to him.

However, when the granthi asked him to cover his head inside the gurdwara, Gautam attacked him. As per the complaint submitted to the police, the accused pulled the priest's beard and slapped him. Enraged at this, those present caught hold of Gautam and handed him over to the police.

The accused told the police he had taken umbrage at some comments of the granthi about 'pandits' during the discourse and had gone inside to question him about it. Timely police action in arresting the accused after registering a case under sections 295 A and 323 IPC saved the situation from getting out of hand.

The accused works with as a book binder and his family has claimed he is mentally disturbed. However, the police are yet to verify the claim.

Source: The Times of India / Chandigar

Section 295A

• Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs

1[295A. Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.

Whoever, with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any class of 2[citizens of India], 3[by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise], insults or attempts to insult the religion or the religious beliefs of that class, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 4[three years], or with fine, or with both.]

323 IPC/ Indian Penal Code

323. Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt