Bangla Sahib row: DSGMC files police complaint against Kejriwal, AAP leaders

The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) on Sunday filed a police complaint against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders, including party chief Arvind Kejriwal, alleging that party workers and supporters disrupted the atmosphere at Gurdwara Bangla Sahib in central Delhi and that "misleading" videos of the episode were later circulated on social media.

The complaint follows events on Saturday, when a large number of protesters gathered on the gurdwara premises while attempting to march to Jantar Mantar to join a demonstration demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The protesters were stopped and detained by the police.

In its complaint, the DSGMC alleged that workers and supporters associated with the AAP entered the gurdwara premises and began protesting there, "creating chaos and disturbance" and attempting to use the sanctity of the 'Guru Ghar' for political activity.

"The protesters also raised political slogans inside the sacred premises, disturbing the religious atmosphere and violating the sanctity and maryada of Guru Ghar. Such deliberate political activity inside a revered place of worship has deeply hurt the religious sentiments of the Sikh Sangat," the complaint stated.

A delegation of DSGMC office-bearers, including its president Harmeet Singh Kalka, submitted the complaint at the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi district) and handed over video footage showing the protesters inside the gurdwara.

"We request Delhi Police to identify each of these persons from the videos, ascertain who mobilised, organised and directed them to enter the Gurdwara premises, and take appropriate legal action against all those involved," the DSGMC said.

The complaint further alleged that AAP leaders and MLAs circulated videos on social media presenting a "distorted version" of the incident and blaming the gurdwara management committee itself. It said Mr. Kejriwal publicly supported and amplified this narrative "despite the conduct of his party workers and the circumstances leading to the disturbance being visible from the available material".

Mr. Kalka also said that when Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann visited the gurdwara, policemen accompanying him were wearing shoes. He said the Delhi Police personnel who entered the premises to detain the protesters used a passage inside and did not enter the Darbar Hall, the main sanctum. He added, however, that policemen should not have entered the gurdwara premises in uniform.

The police have given a different account. Earlier on Saturday, Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Sachin Sharma said in a post on X that personnel were walking through a common passage used by devotees to reach the point where they remove their shoes before entering the gurdwara. He described the video in circulation as having been shared with "malicious intent" and said legal action would be initiated against those responsible.

AAP leaders had alleged that the police entered the gurdwara in order to detain protesters.

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann also posted on X supporting the entry of the protesters into Gurdwara Bangla Sahib. "I strongly condemn in the harshest terms the BJP's police forcibly entering Gurdwara Sri Bangla Sahib in Delhi yesterday..." he said, adding that the doors of gurdwaras are always open to provide shelter to the needy. "If the youth of this country protesting yesterday had entered there, the principle of the Guru's house is that the sevadars would grant them shelter...," he said.

The DSGMC said the sequence of events raised "a serious apprehension" that the disruption and the subsequent circulation of "selective and misleading" videos may have been part of a coordinated attempt to create controversy inside a place of worship, provoke religious sentiments, malign the gurdwara management and derive political benefit from the resulting situation.

Gurdwaras in the Sikh tradition are open to all visitors and are expected to be free of political activity, a convention that religious bodies say is central to preserving their maryada, or code of conduct and sanctity. Disputes over political mobilisation or police conduct inside places of worship have repeatedly raised questions about balancing the right to protest with the protection of religious spaces.

The complaint refers to AAP leaders collectively and names Mr. Kejriwal. There was no immediate word from the Delhi Police on whether a case had been registered on its basis, and the AAP has not responded to the specific allegations in the complaint.