SBS Nagar, Jan. 20 -- In a U-turn, the Punjab government on Monday stated that no anomalies or irregularities were found regarding the holy saroops at the Banga-based shrine, Rasokhana Nabh Kanwal Raja Sahib. Finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema said, "As part of the investigation into the missing saroops, the SIT claimed to have traced 169 saroops on the premises of Nabh Kanwal Raja Sahib. However, after thorough probe into the matter, no anomaly has been found in the records maintained by the Raja Sahib management related to the saroops possessed by it. The record related to the saroops is accounted for by the management." Cheema's statement comes days after chief minister Bhagwant Singh Mann during a Maghi conference on January 14 had said, "Of the 169 traced saroops from the Banga-based shrine, 139 were found to have no official record or serial numbers, raising questions about unauthorised distribution and mismanagement". On CM's statement at the Maghi conference, Cheema said, "There might be some miscommunication and it has been cleared now". Cheema was part of a high-powered delegation of the state government, including education minister Harjot Singh Bains and Anandpur Sahib MP Malwinder Singh Kang, that visited Raja Sahib premises in Banga's Mazaara Nau Abad village on Monday amid raging controversy related to the 328 missing saroops. After holding a closed-door meeting with the management committee of the shrine, Cheema, Bains and Kang held a brief press interaction with the media. Cheema said the SIT will continue its investigation into the 328 saroops case further as the government is committed to tracking records of the missing sacred copies. He said that no FIR has been registered against the management of the shrine, adding, "The CM will soon visit and pay obeisance at this place." The government representatives paid obeisance at the shrine a day after Banga MLA Dr Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi relinquished the cabinet rank by resigning as the chairman of the Punjab State Container and Warehousing Corporation. Following the CM's statement, the issue was raked up politically and religiously, as leaders of opposition parties came in the support of theRaja Sahib management, which debunked SIT findings onJanuary 15. Soon after CM's statement, the special investigation team (SIT) probing the missing saroops case, in a press release, said the team visited the Banga-based shrine and cross-verified the saroops in the presence of the management committee. "All the investigative proceedings were carried out taking care of due 'maryada'. The SIT members found 169 saroops inside the premises. However, the administrative body and management of Raja Sahib had no record of the remaining 139 saroops," the SIT claimed. It added that of the total total saroops, 20 were procured from the SGPC in the name of village Mazaara Nau Abad gurdwara on January 8, 2009, while 10 saroops are in the name of Gurdwara Sahib Patshahi Nauvi of Dosanjh Khurd village of SBS district on the same date in the same year. The spokesperson added that instead of being given to gurdwaras, which procured these 30 saroops, they were kept at Raja Sahib. Addressing the press conference on January 15, the Raja Sahib management debunked Mann and SIT's theories, accusing them of misleading the people. The management claimed that of the total 169 saroops, 107 were published by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and 79 of these were procured from the SGPC between 1978 and 2012. As many as 30 saroops, which were printed by the SGPC in 2014, were received by the trust in 2019. The "raja sahib" possesses 62 copies published by private Punjab and Delhi publishers and printers. These were printed before 1998, and all these saroops were donated by the NRIs and philanthropists for their religious upkeep, it said. The case dates back to May 2020, when an internal audit at the SGPC publication house at Gurdwara Ramsar Sahib in Amritsar revealed a discrepancy of 328 saroops. While the Akal Takht had initially conducted an inquiry and awarded religious punishment (tankhah) to several officials, the lack of criminal proceedings remained a flashpoint for Panthic organisations. The AAP government registered a first information report on December 7, 2025, invoking sections related to criminal breach of trust, forgery, and hurting religious sentiments. The SIT, led by AIG (Vigilance) Jagatpreet Singh, recently arrested the prime accused, former SGPC internal auditor Satinder Singh Kohli. While the SGPC initially termed the state's intervention "unwarranted", the Akal Takht jathedar recently directed the committee to cooperate with the SIT in the larger interest of the Sikh sangat (community)....