Earlier, while responding to a starred question raised by Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra and Mr Sukhdev Singh Libra on the floor of the Rajya Sabha on December 2, 1998, that the 'Army had removed certain items from the premises of the Golden Temple complex in 1984.

The Army had handed over some items to the CBI in July, 1984. The CBI, in turn, returned these documents to authorised representative of the SGPC in October, 1989. A few documents were found 'Objectionable and thus destroyed'.

The SGPC and renowned Sikh scholars are of the view that more than 90 per cent material of the Sikh Reference Library was still intact and should be returned to the SGPC immediately. Otherwise, the invaluable material could get destroyed without proper maintenance. Dr Bachan has admitted that some material which was handed over to the SGPC was intact.