SAHIWAL (Staff Report) – Local court on Wednesday granted bail to five people accused of blasphemy case wherein a Sikh man complained they had desecrated his turban during a scuffle over a delayed bus issue in Chichawatni.
The complainant Mahindar Paul Singh alleged that the police added wrong sections of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) in the FIR.
He quoted judge as saying that section 295 does not address his case as it deals with desecration of some religious place, while in his case his Sikh turban was allegedly disrespected. The judge has told me that section 295 of PPC is bailable, he added.
The 29-year-old Multan resident, Mahinder Paal Singh, was allegedly manhandled by employees of Kohistan-Faisal Movers travel company, and one of them also threw his turban on the ground near Dijkot while he was travelling to Multan.
The turban is considered sacred in the Sikh religion and is one of the five basic teachings of the religion. Throwing the turban on ground was an act of dishonour to the Sikh religion, Mahinder Paal Singh maintained in the police complaint.
The FIR (number 169/16) has been registered under sections 295, 148 and 506 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), which deal with insult to any religious place, forced kidnapping and criminal intimidation respectively.
