Gurmeet Ram Rahim rape case: Maximum alert in two states ahead of verdict

Chandigarh: Thousands of followers reached Panchkula on Wednesday as Haryana and Punjab maintain maximum alert ahead of the court judgment in a rape case against the Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

As a precautionary measure, the government has ordered closure of schools and colleges in Panchkula district on August 24 and 25, deputy commissioner Gauri Parashar Joshi said.

The Chandigarh administration has also closed all educational institutes on Thursday and Friday.

Many followers are still arriving at the sect’s Sector-23 Panchkula based ‘Naam Charcha Ghar’ (congregation/prayer centre) to show their solidarity with the sect chief, who has been asked to appear in person in the special CBI court on Friday. There is heavy police and paramilitary forces’ deployment near the routes leading to the district court complex in Panchkula, where the lawyers have suspended work for three days from Wednesday to avoid inconvenience to the public visiting the courts.

The Chandigarh Police has also barricaded all entry points to the city as a precautionary measure.

Meanwhile, a spokesman of Dera Sacha Sauda on Wednesday said the sect and its head had always followed law and would do so in future also.

“We have always followed due process of law, never have we gone out of law’s purview and never ever will we do so,” he said.

Security forces in Haryana and Punjab have been taking out flag marches at many sensitive places. The Haryana government has already clamped prohibitory orders in all its districts as a precautionary measure.

The police have set up barricades at several places in the two states, besides their common capital Chandigarh, where security has been further tightened ahead of the court verdict.

Amid reports that the dera followers could stock petrol, lathis and other weapons at Naam Charcha Ghars, the Punjab Police have asked all its SSPs and other top-ranking police officials to be alert against any such action by the followers if the court verdict goes against the Dera chief.

Haryana’s additional chief secretary (home) Ram Niwas said that carrying of any kind of stick or weapon had been prohibited at Naam Charcha Ghars of dera followers in the state.

While Haryana DGP B.S. Sandhu has already toured sensitive districts in the state, including Sirsa, Fatehabad, Hisar and other places during the past few days, his Punjab counterpart Suresh Arora on Tuesday took a whirlwind tour of Bathinda, Mansa, Moga, Patiala, Ludhiana, Fatehgarh Sahib and Mohali districts, and checked preparedness.

Heavy police has been deployed in Bathinda, which shares its borderwith Sirsa, where the dera has its headquarters.

Union Territory Chandigarh’s Home department has declared the cricketstadium in Sector 16, which was associated with early training days oflegendary Kapil Dev and has hosted several domestic and internationalmatches, as ‘temporary jail’ on August 25.

Officials have said the ‘temporary jail’ can be used to confine people suspected of creating law and order problem on Friday.

Senior cops and administrative officers of Haryana, Punjab and UT Chandigarh have been holding confabulations to take stock of the security arrangements.

It is worth mentioning that in year 2002 the sadhvis who were members of the Dera Sacha Sauda had accused Singh of rape and the case was registered. It was taken up by the Punjab and Haryana high court but was later handed over to the CBI.

In the letter, a sadhvi had said she was asked to go into Singh’s roomlate one night. The Baba, she wrote, was sitting on the bed. A pornographic film was playing on the TV and a revolver was lying near the bed. Singh then raped her and the assaults continued for the next three years. The sadhvi also said 35-40 others were exploited like her.

The controversy deepened after a man was allegedly shot dead by Dera followers in July the same year as he was suspected to be behind an anonymous letter sent to the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The CBI officials said they had concrete evidence against Singh. The agency charged him with sexually exploiting sadhvis after tracking down two victims. Their statements have been recorded before a magistrate under section 164 CrPC, which makes them admissible as evidence.