The final hearing in two separate murder cases against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and others began here on Saturday in the court of special CBI judge Jagdeep Singh amid tight security. While seven accused in the murder cases were present in the court in Panchkula, adjoining Chandigarh, the jailed sect chief took part in the hearing through video-conferencing from the District Jail in Sunaria near Rohtak.
Meanwhile, the sect head's former driver, Khatta Singh, approached the court seeking to record a fresh statement against the disgraced godman, his counsel Navkiran Singh said.
Ram Rahim Singh has been lodged in the Rohtak jail following his conviction in August in two rape cases.
Tight security arrangements, including para-military forces and Haryana Police personnel, were seen in Panchkula town, especially around the court complex in Sector 1.
The cases are related to the murder of Sirsa-based journalist Chhatrapati and former Dera manager Ranjit Singh, allegedly by functionaries and followers of the sect.
The hearing of the two murder cases will be continued next week. The rape convict sect head has been named as the main conspirator in the murder cases.
Ram Rahim’s former driver, Khatta Singh, approached the court seeking to record a fresh statement against the sect head. His application will be taken up next week.
Khatta Singh had earlier given a statement in favour of the sect chief in the murder cases but now claimed that he did it under threat and pressure from the sect chief.
The hearing of the Ranjit Singh murder case will be held on Monday (September 18) and journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati murder case will be held on September 22, said sect chief’s counsel SK Garg while talking to the mediapersons.
Garg said that the final arguments will take some time to complete.
It was the same judge who had, on August 25, convicted Ram Rahim on two counts of rape of his female disciples and sentenced him to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment on August 28.
Chhatrapati was shot at in October 2002 after a newspaper owned by him, Poora Sach, published an anonymous letter narrating how women were being sexually exploited by the sect head at the Dera headquarters. Ranjit Singh, who was believed to be privy to a number of wrong things going on inside the sect headquarters, was also shot dead in 2002.
According to the prosecution, he was murdered for his suspected role in circulating the anonymous letter which made the allegations of sexual exploitation.
The sect chief is an accused in both murder cases, along with other accused, as these were carried out allegedly at his behest.
On August 25, after the CBI court convicted Ram Rahim for raping two of his female disciples, violence erupted in Panchkula and Sirsa in which 41 people had died.
Meanwhile, an alert has been sounded along the Indo-Nepal border to track down Gurmeet Ram Rahim’s close aide and adopted daughter Honeypreet Insaan, who might use the porous border to slip out of the country and evade arrest. Intelligence inputs gave specific information that Honeypreet was likely to don a burqa to dodge security forces and escape from the country.
Sources said that instructions have been issued at all border police stations of Maharajganj, Gorakhpur, Bahriach, Balrampur, Sidharthnagar, lakhimpur Kheri and Pilibhit districts bordering Nepal to keep a strict lookout for women wearing veils or burqas.
The directives were issued on a report from Central Intelligence agency suspecting that sneaking into Nepal could be Honeypreet’s lone and easiest option. Hence Honeypreet’s pictures have been circulated in all border police stations while two women constables have been posted in each police station on the Indo-Nepal border.
“We are not allowing any women or girl to cross over without physical frisking by female cops and document verification by jawans. Night patrolling on the open border has been beefed up and a round the clock vigil is being kept,” sources in Shashatra Seema Bal (SSB) manning Indo-Nepal border revealed.
Earlier, a Haryana Police team visited lakhimpur Kheri when a car from Haryana was found abandoned near the Indo-Nepal border few days back.