Bangla Sahib Entry Row: Delhi Gurdwara Body Files Police Complaint Against AAP Leaders

Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) on Sunday filed a police complaint against AAP leaders, including party chief Arvind Kejriwal, over alleged disruptions at Bangla Sahib Gurdwara and circulation of "misleading" videos during the anti-CEC protests.

A large number of protesters gathered on the gurdwara premises on Saturday while trying to reach Jantar Mantar to join the protest against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar. But their attempts were thwarted, and they were detained by the police.

The complaint filed by DSGMC alleged that workers and supporters associated with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) entered the gurdwara premises and started protesting there, creating chaos and disturbance, thereby attempting to use the sanctity of 'Guru Ghar' for political activity.

"The protesters also raised political slogans inside the sacred premises, disturbing the religious atmosphere and violating the sanctity and maryada of Guru Ghar.

Such deliberate political activity inside a revered place of worship has deeply hurt the religious sentiments of the Sikh Sangat," read the complaint.

A delegation of DSGMC office bearers, including president Harmeet Singh Kalka, submitted the complaint to the Deputy Commissioner of Police office, New Delhi district, and also furnished videos showing the protesters inside Gurdwara Bangla Sahib.

"We request Delhi Police to identify each of these persons from the videos, ascertain who mobilised, organised and directed them to enter the Gurdwara premises, and take appropriate legal action against all those involved," the DSGMC demanded.

The complaint also said that AAP leaders and MLAs circulated videos on social media presenting a "distorted version" of the incident and blaming the gurdwara management committee itself.

"Arvind Kejriwal also publicly supported and amplified this narrative, despite the conduct of his party workers and the circumstances leading to the disturbance being visible from the available material," it said.

Kalka said that when Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann visited the Bangla Sahib Gurdwara, policemen accompanying him wore shoes.

He said the Delhi Police personnel who entered the gurdwara to detain the protesters used a path inside the premises and did not visit the Darbar Hall (main sanctum) of Bangla Sahib.

He, however, said the policemen should not have entered the gurdwara premises wearing uniforms.

Earlier on Saturday, Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Sachin Sharma, in a post on X, said the personnel were walking through a common passage used by devotees to reach the point where they remove their shoes before entering the gurdwara.

He also said that the video doing the rounds was circulated with “malicious intent”, and assured to initiate legal action against those responsible.

The AAP leaders had alleged that the police entered the gurdwara to detain the protesters. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on X supported the entry of protesters in Bangla Sahib Gurdwara.

'I strongly condemn in the harshest terms the BJP's police forcibly entering Gurdwara Sri Bangla Sahib in Delhi yesterday..." he said, adding that the doors of gurdwaras are always open to provide shelter to the needy.

"If the youth of this country protesting yesterday had entered there, the principle of the Guru's house is that the sevadars would grant them shelter...," he said.

The DSGMC said that the sequence of events raises a serious apprehension that the disruption and subsequent circulation of "selective and misleading" videos may have been part of a coordinated attempt to create controversy inside a place of worship, provoke religious sentiments, malign the gurdwara management and derive political benefit from the resulting situation.