After death and destruction descended on Haryana’s Panchkula city following conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in a rape case on Friday, the Manohar lal Khattar Government has put the entire blame on IPS Ashok Kumar, DCP Panchkula, who was suspended a day before.
Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Ram Niwas, while talking to the mediapersons on Sunday said that DCP Panchkula failed to impose Section 144 of CrPC correctly.
On the huge gathering of dera followers at Panchkula, he said that the Government did what could be done to stop them to reach Panchkula. But, as Panchkula is surrounded by open areas, the protesters entered the city in large numbers by road, river Ghaggar and other ways in spite of 61 nakas, said the ACS Home.
The senior bureaucrat was again seen trotting out excuses that cracking down on the dera supporters before the judgment would have led to more violence in Panchkula.
A day before also, the top brass of Haryana Government including Chief Secretary DS Dhesi, Additional Chief Secretary, ACS Home and DGP BS Sandhu also patted the back of their Government for controlling the violent situation in around three hours and preventing the violent protests by dera followers from escalating further in Panchkula.
But the Khattar Government’s “achievement” was at the cost of 38 lives lost in these three hours. While the death toll stood at 32 in Panchkula, 6 people died at Sirsa, where the dera sect has main headquarters. More than 260 people were injured in the violence.
The violence and arson by the supporters of the Dera chief at Panchkula brought back the chilling memories of last year’s violent Jat agitation during which 31 people had died and more than 200 were left injured in Haryana.
While the entire blame has been put on an IPS officer, the BJP Central leadership decided to give a clean chit to Chief Minister Manohar lal, whose administration failed to deal with an emergency situation and prevent violence for the third time in the State.
Notably, Punjab and Haryana High Court had also come down heavily on the Haryana Government for its apparent inability to maintain law and order in the State ahead of the CBI court verdict and pulled it up for not imposing section 144 CrPC correctly to prevent the huge gathering of dera followers in Panchkula.
Followers of Ram Rahim, who had gathered in Panchkula adjoining Chandigarh in thousands over the past one week, went on a rampage, hurling stones, vandalising media vehicles and setting on fire several vehicles and Government buildings, moments after the conviction of Ram Rahim in the rape case.
A day before, Haryana Government had also sacked one of its top lawyers, Deputy Advocate General Gurdas Singh Salwara, who was caught on camera holding Ram Rahim Singh’s bag after his conviction in the rape case.
In a video that went viral, Salwara, the State’s number two lawyer, was seen in his court robes as he rushed to help Ram Rahim with a bright orange suitcase.