Akal Takht revokes pardon to Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh

The Akal Takht, the supreme temporal seat of the Sikhs, on Friday revoked its pardon to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in the 2007 blasphemy case.

The Sikh clergy held an emergency meeting at the Akal Takht secretariat to contemplate over the current situation and unrest among Sikhs with respect to the pardoning issued on September 24 and decided to declare it null and void.

The Akal Takht decided to revoke its September 24 pardon at a meeting of the five Sikh high priests in Amritsar, two days after a violent flare up in Kotkapura town that left two people dead and over 60 others injured.

On September 24, the Takht had pardoned the Sirsa-based dera chief after he had sent an apology letter to it for appearing before a congregation attired like the 10th Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, in 2007. Clashes between Sikhs and dera followers had ensued after that incident and the Takht had then ordered the dera chief's social boycott besides a ban on such congregations.