The son of a slain journalist, who had first exposed sexual exploitation of female disciples of Dera Sacha Sauda sect by its chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in 2002, on Friday accused political parties of shielding jailed rape convict dera chief Ram Rahim for their political gains.
“Be it the INlD, the Congress, Akali Dal or the BJP, all were with the Dera chief. All these political parties wanted votes of Dera followers and have shielding the wrongdoings of Ram Rahim, said Anshul Chhatrapati while talking to the mediapersons at Chandigarh Press Club.
Anshul Chhatrapati, the son of murdered Sirsa-based journalist Ram Chandra Chhatrapati said that all political parties whether in power or in opposition have just given lip-service, but none really provided any degree of service (in the case)."
“The real heroes are the Sadhvis and the witnesses who withstood enormous pressure and intimidation to stand by the truth in the case against Ram Rahim,” he said.
Anshul said, “My faith in law has been reaffirmed after CBI court verdict in a rape case against the Dera chief. The sacrifice of my father was to uphold the journalistic principles of complete truth.”
Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was jailed for 20 years by a CBI court in two rape cases last month. On the case of his father's killing, which is in the stage of final arguments in the court, Anshul said that it is well known that the Dera tried to ensure that no CBI probe took place into the case.
Naming several Congress leaders for putting pressure on the CBI in favour of the Sirsa Dera head in 2005, he said that many politicians have shielded Ram Rahim and state Police also could not act against him.
Anshul also lashed out at the BJP and said that its ministers had been visiting the Dera to get Gurmeet’s blessings and also donated huge money from their discretionary funds to the dera.
Drawing parallels between a soldier on the border with his gun and a journalist with his pen ready to write the truth, he said that a journalist is akin to a soldier while urging the journalists to use pen wisely. His father Ram Chandra Chhatrapati was shot dead, allegedly by sect supporters at the behest of the sect chief, in October 2002 after he wrote about shady activities inside the sect headquarters near Sirsa in his vernacular newspaper.
Months after Ram Chandra Chhatrapati had published an anonymous letter giving details about how women were sexually harassed by Gurmeet Ram Rahim at Sirsa dear headquarters, he was shot from point-blank range right outside his house on October 24, 2002.
The anonymous letter published by Chhatrapati in his newspaper was addressed to then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and heads of several other institutions including the Chief Juctice of Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Notably, the investigations into the rape charges against Ram Rahim were triggered by this anonymous letter written in 2002. Jailed Ram Rahim is facing trial in two separate murder cases — those of dera follower Ranjit Singh in July 2002 and of journalist Ram Chander Chattrapati in October that same year.