AMRITSAR, Dec. 8 -- Police on Sunday registered a first information report (FIR) against 16 individuals, mostly former Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) officials and staffers, in connection with the missing 328 'saroops' (sacred copies) of Guru Granth Sahib, nearly five years after the matter came to light. Satinder Singh Kohli, former CA of SGPC and considered close to Badal family, is also among those booked. The FIR was registered on complaint of sacked Golden Temple hazuri raagi Bhai Baldev Singh Wadala who is head of Sikh Sadbhawna Dal and has been spearheading a dharna at the heritage street near the Golden Temple to seek justice in the case. The FIR was registered on the basis of the inquiry report was prepared by Telangana high court lawyer Ishar Singh-led panel that was appointed by the Akal Takht. Vidhan Sabha speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan, who visited the dharna site on Sunday, said the state government will not tolerate sacrilege of any religion. "Our government will not spare anybody who commits this type of heinous crime," he said. Those booked have been identified as former chief secretary Roop Singh, former secretary Manjit Singh, Gurbachan Singh, Satinder Singh, Nishan Singh, Paramjit Singh, Gurmukh Singh, Jujhar Singh, Baaj Singh, Dalbir Singh, Kamaljit Singh, Kulwant Singh, Jaspreet Singh, Gurbachan Singh, Satinder Singh and Amarjit Singh. The FIR was registered under IPC sections 295 (injuring or defiling a place of worship or sacred object with intent to insult a religion), 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 409 (criminal breach of trust), 465 (forgery) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) at Police Station Division-C Amritsar Commissionerate, said a police spokesperson. The development follows a prolonged inquiry into mismanagement and record-keeping discrepancies at the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Bhawan, the publishing house of the SGPC in Amritsar, where the sacred 'saroops' are printed and published. The SGPC has the sole authority to print these scriptures at the Gurdwara Ramsar Sahib. In Sikhism, a saroop is treated as a living guru and is held in the highest respect. The row is basically about printing, publishing, care, sanctity, allotment and maintaining record of saroops. The matter was exposed by human rights advocacy group Punjab Human Rights Organisation (PHRO) by writing a letter to Akal Takht and chief secretary of Punjab in 2020. The PHRO letter cited a retiring SGPC employee Kamaljeet Singh in the publication department, alleging that 267 saroops were missing in records. The Akal Takht, the highest temporal authority of Sikhs, formed an independent panel to investigate the matter. The 1,000-page report, submitted in August 2020 by an investigation officer, revealed that 328 saroops were missing due to alleged negligence, fabrication of ledgers, and misappropriation by staff between 2013 and 2015. In the PHRO letter, questions were raised about a fire incident that took place on May 19, 2016, in SGPC publishing house, in which the holy saroops were damaged. The letter stated that the SGPC understated the damage done by the fire incident and stated probe must be conducted in this matter. It claimed that "the damage was massive but the SGPC hid it to save the then SAD-BJP government from public wrath when the issue of Bargari sacrilege was already burning and next assembly polls were close". The PHRO termed the fire incident as one of the major reasons behind the saroops going missing. After the matter came to light, there was a massive outrage among the Sikhs. On the recommendations of the report that proved the misappropriation, the Takht ordered the SGPC to take action against those indicted in the report. The then SGPC president Gobind Singh Longowal announced to get FIR registered against the accused, but backtracked later apprehending that it would pave the way for external interference in the matter of the gurdwara body. However, on the basis of the report, the SGPC, on August 27, 2020, dismissed six officials and employees, suspended five, including secretary of Dharam Parchar Committee, besides terminating services of controversial charted accountant Satinder Singh Kohli....