Ludhiana, Jan. 20 -- Hundreds of tax professionals, including chartered accountants, advocates, company secretaries and income tax practitioners, staged a protest in Ludhiana on Tuesday against what they termed an "illegal and unconstitutional" search conducted by the Punjab Police at the office of a chartered accountant earlier this month, even as police said the action was part of an investigation into the 328 missing saroops (scriptures) of the Guru Granth Sahib.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) from Amritsar, with the help of local police, had raided the office of chartered accountant Ashwani Sharma in Tagore Nagar, Block B, Ludhiana, on January 9 in connection with the probe into the missing saroops. During the raid, the team conf...