Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, whose conviction for rape triggered a spate of violence in Haryana, on Monday moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging his 20 years sentence by a special CBI court.
Filed by counsels of the disgraced self-styled godman, the matter has not yet been listed by the court for hearing.
The CBI court in Panchkula on August 28 had sentenced Ram Rahim to 20 years in prison after his conviction for raping two disciples.
Defence counsel Vishal Garg Narwana said an appeal had been filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court to challenge the order of the CBI court. He said the CBI verdict had been challenged on several grounds.
“One of the grounds was that there was a delay of more than six years in recording the statements of the women (victims) by the CBI after the incident,” the defence counsel said.
The CBI had claimed that the two women followers were sexually exploited in 1999 and the agency recorded their statement in 2005, Garg said. He alleged that the CBI had also concealed some portion of the victims’ statement.
Ram Rahim was convicted by the special CBI court on August 25, following which violence and arson had erupted in Panchkula and Sirsa districts which left 41 people dead and scores of injured.
The judge pronounced two sentences of 10 years rigorous imprisonment in each of the two rapes that date back to 2002. The controversial sect head is currently lodged in Sunaria jail in Rohtak district of Panchkula.