When the first sacrilege incident in recent times took place in Punjab on June 1, 2015, at Burj Jawahar Ke village in Faridkot, no one knew that 11 years down the line, 597 such incidents will be registered across the state.
Data about the incidents from the Police Department reveals that the state’s decade-long struggle continues even though investigation under the Punjab Bureau of Investigation has become shorter and faster.
The detection rate also increased from previous 40 per cent to 80 per cent now.
The government has called a special session of the Vidhan Sabha on April 13 to discuss existing laws, the analysis of cases and recommend stringent measures.
The 2015 Bargari incident in Faridkot, where pages of the Guru Granth Sahib were found scattered, triggered massive protests and set in motion a chain of events that contributed to the Akali-BJP government’s fall in 2017.
The Congress, which rode to power partly on the promise of justice in sacrilege cases, found the unresolved incidents following it into the 2022 elections, contributing to its ouster.
Of the 597 cases, 480 involve sacrilege of Sikh religious scriptures and shrines, 92 involve Hindu religious places, 14 Muslim shrines and scriptures and 11 Christian places of worship.
“We are leaving no stone unturned. Special sensitive care is taken to investigate the cases especially involving allegedly mentally unstable accused and minors. We are investigating the financial trail of the accused. Even psychological profiling and evaluation of the accused is being done. All angles of a deeper conspiracy are explored,” said ADGP LK Yadav.
Yadav is also the Director, Bureau of Investigation, which is leading the investigation into the cases.
The conviction numbers make for grim reading. Of 597 FIRs, only 44 have ended in conviction. Against that, 99 resulted in acquittal, 83 were cancelled during investigation, 37 quashed by courts and 102 remain untraced. A total of 131 cases are under trial and 101 still under investigation.
Of the 791 accused identified over the decade, 544 were arrested.
Labourers and unemployed persons dominate the profile of accused and convicts, though the investigation flags with particular concern the involvement of 44 granthis, pandits and pastors.
The investigations also flagged that between 15 and 30 per cent of accused across various districts were found to be mentally unstable, which has repeatedly complicated prosecution.
Acquittals have largely occurred due to lack of evidence, hostile witnesses, improper preservation of crime scenes and failure to establish motive.
Most cases in Amritsar Rural
The year-wise data reveals that after 65 cases in 2015 and 54 in 2016, the numbers dipped to 47 in 2017, 40 in 2018 and a low of 31 in 2019. Then came the reversal. Cases jumped to 59 in 2020 and peaked sharply at 80 each in 2021 and 2022, the years of the state elections.
Numbers eased to 54 in 2023 before climbing back to 65 in 2024. Twenty-two cases were reported in 2025 and nine have been reported till February 28 this year.Amritsar Rural leads with 51 cases, followed by Amritsar City with 42 and Bathinda with 39. Tarn Taran accounts for 36 cases and Hoshiarpur and Patiala 35 each.
