Chandigarh (PTI): A Dera Sacha Sauda follower, who was an accused in a 2015 sacrilege incident, was shot dead on Thursday by five unidentified assailants in Punjab's Faridkot district, police said.

Pardeep Singh was opening his dairy shop in Kotkapura when he was shot dead and the incident was caught on a CCTV camera installed nearby, they said, adding his gunman also sustained bullet injuries.

Singh was one of the accused in a case of theft of a 'bir' (copy) of the Guru Granth Sahib in 2015 in Faridkot and was currently on bail.

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann appealed for peace, and said no one will be allowed to disturb peace in the state.

Punjab is a peace loving state where mutual brotherhood of people is very strong...No one will be allowed to disturb the peace of Punjab Strict instructions to the civil and police officials to maintain the peace and tranquillity in the state, said Mann in a tweet.

Speaking to reporters, Inspector General of Police (Faridkot Range) Pradeep Kumar Yadav said police have got some leads and are working on them.

He said the assailants will be arrested soon.

Police were also examining the CCTV footage of the incident which showed that the five had come on two bikes.

The sacrilege incidents in Faridkot in 2015 had triggered protests in the district.Two persons were killed in Behbal Kalan while some people were injured at Kotkapura in Faridkot after police fired at protesters in October 2015.

Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is serving a 20-year jail term for raping two women disciples at his ashram in Sirsa, where the dera is headquartered. He was convicted by a special CBI court in Panchkula in August 2017.

 

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Mumbai (PTI): A 55-year-old man, who was among the several persons injured in the BEST bus accident in Kurla area here, died on Monday morning, taking the death toll to eight, a civic official said.

The electric bus, hired by the civic-run Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking on wet-lease basis, ploughed into a crowd and fatally knocked down seven persons and injured 42 others on a crowded road in Kurla area on December 9.

Several vehicles were also damaged in the incident. One of the injured persons, identified as Fazlu Rehman, died during treatment at the Sion Hospital on Monday morning, the official from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said. BEST has set up a five-member committee to investigate the Kurla accident. Driver Sanjay More (54) is in police custody for alleged reckless driving.

In a statement issued last week, BEST said a committee, headed by Chief Manager (Transport) Ramesh Madavi, will investigate the accident. It also said that BEST would provide Rs 2 lakh each to the families of those who lost their lives and bear treatment expenses of the injured.

BEST administration has claimed that More received three days' training before he was allowed to drive the electric bus. RTO officials suspect human error and lack of proper training for driving automatic transmission buses could be the reason behind the accident, among the most horrific involving BEST buses in recent history.