Overview
- Police in Malout, Sri Muktsar Sahib, filed an FIR Thursday night after torn pages from a Sukhmani Sahib gutka, a Sikh prayer book, were found in Kuchian Mohalla.
- The case names unknown persons under Section 299 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Section 5 of the Jaagat Jot Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar (Amendment) Act, 2026.
- About 40 to 50 pages were recovered and given to a gurdwara, where staff placed them respectfully according to Sikh religious protocol.
- Investigators are scanning CCTV and questioning residents, and they are checking if scrap collectors in the mostly recycling‑work neighborhood brought the damaged book there.
- The new law allows sentences up to life in prison and fines up to ₹25 lakh, a shift driven by a decade with 597 sacrilege FIRs but only 44 convictions and lingering anger from 2015 cases.