AMRITSAR, Feb. 1 -- The local court here on Saturday rejected the bail plea of chartered accountant (CA) Satinder Singh Kohli, former internal auditor of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), who is said to be close to SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, in the case of missing 328 sacred saroops of Guru Granth Sahib. Kohli, who is in judicial custody currently, submitted a plea for regular plea citing that he was falsely implicated in the case. After being arrested on January 1 in Chandigarh, Kohli remained in the police custody for 12 days. His arrest marked the first major custodial action since the registration of an FIR in the long-pending matter, which has strong religious, legal and political implications in Punjab. Satinder Singh Kohli's firm, SS Kohli and Associates, was appointed by the SGPC in 2009 to conduct internal audits, computerise accounts and strengthen financial control systems. For these services, the firm reportedly received a monthly payment of around Rs.3.5 lakh. The FIR, in this case, was registered on December 7 against 16 individuals, mostly officials and employees of the SGPC, nearly five years after the matter came to light, on a complaint from the sacked hazuri ragi of the Golden Temple, Baldev Singh Wadala, leader of Sikh Sadbhawna Dal. The matter was first exposed by a human rights advocacy group - Punjab Human Rights Organisation (PHRO) in 2020. A special investigation team (SIT) was also constituted to conduct a detailed probe and identify the full chain of responsibility. On the second day of recording statements of different persons for the ongoing investigation, SGPC member and former general secretary Sukhdev Singh Bhaur and serving SGPC employees-Narain Kumar (machine man), Udham Singh (proof reader), Manjinder Singh (store keeper), Gurvinder Singh (head clerk) and Hira Singh (Chaur Bardar) recorded their statements before the SIT....