Australia resident Sukhjit Singh Deol, who has admitted sending money to Rupinder Singh of Punjab's Panjgrain village, who has been booked along with his brother in 'Bir' sacrilege case, spoke to TOI's Rohan Dua on how he was dragged into the controversy.What was the reason for you to send the money to Rupinder? Is it the first time you did so? I have never deposited any money into his account before.
My bank statement copies and remittances are maintained for scrutiny. Besides, I asked all my friends to pool in some money for the aid of the people injured in the police action on protesting Sikhs. The first decision to send the money was taken on October 14, on the day of Faridkot firing incident in which two people were killed. I learnt about Rupinder's injury through Facebook and Whatsapp. I thought the Sikh man who was fighting for Sikhism, had to face this. Rupinder also solicited help for other injured people as well. He, in fact, said he would share more numbers of injured people as government was not coming forward to pay for their medical treatment. I told him that Australian sangat is behind you and we want those persons who desecrated Guru Granth Sahib to be booked.
Can you tell us how you are related to Rupinder? Last time when I was in India I had gone to Bhuccho in Bathinda. I planned to do some shopping at the wholesale market (Walmart). He was introduced to me by my maasi. I got pulled towards Rupinder's Sikhism ethos. And then I thought if I could be of help to poor people in Punjab who were facing problems. He had once called me and said, "you have forgotten us". After that we got in touch again now.
Punjab Police may approach Australian High Commission on this. I am not even denying that I sent him money. So, where is the doubt. They can search for whatever records they want. We sent the money through Western Union and maintained a record of it. I, in fact, asked Rupinder to send his father's photograph, which we shared on my Facebook account on October 16. I certainly remember we discussed several other things about unemployment and general crisis.
What do you plan to do next? I plan to visit the Indian high commission in Canberra and submit all proof as I suspect police will continue to frame people to save the government. I am also separately planning to meet a group of lawyers to move court here.