CBI charges Dera chief with rape, murder

NEW DELHI: After dilly-dallying for years in one of its most sensitive cases, the CBI has finally chargesheeted the controversial chief of Dera Sacha Sauda, Baba Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh, for allegedly raping two sadhvis (women followers) of his Sirsa-based religious cult and conspiring for the murder of two persons, including a local journalist who tried to expose his ‘misdeeds’ through his articles.

All the three chargesheets against the powerful cult head were filed at the special CBI court, Ambala, late on Monday night.

The court took cognisance of the matter immediately and asked the Baba to appear before it on August 31. “The chargesheets were filed in complete secrecy late on Monday night just to avoid any backlash as the Dera followers have a history of resorting to violence whenever CBI visited them during the course of its probe against their chief,” said a senior agency official.

Though CBI registered the case of rape against the Dera chief in 2002, it took over four years to gather evidence against him. The Dera chief is known to have strong clout among politicians across party lines in both Punjab and Haryana.

The pandora’s box over the conduct of the Dera chief was opened in May 2002 when an anonymous letter alleging sexual exploitation of sadhvis by the Baba came to light.

The letter, written by one of his female disciples, was addressed to the then prime minister with copies sent to the Union home minister, CBI, the Haryana police chief and NHRC. The letter, written in Hindi, carried graphic details of the alleged exploitation of sadhvis, mentioning how the cult head was alleged to have repeatedly raped his women followers for years.

The letter, which eventually became the basis of the CBI probe, also mentioned how the Baba referred to ‘Lord Krishna’ while trying to justify his romanticism before his women followers.

The agency, in its chargesheet, clearly mentioned how the letter helped it to zero in on the accused by not only tracing the victims but also recording their statements under Section 164 of the CrPC which is admissible as evidence in court.

CBI has charged the Baba with ‘criminal conspiracy’ in the murder cases — one of which is related to the killing of one Ranjit Singh, a member of the cult’s Sirsa-based management committee. Singh had reportedly gone against the Baba when he came to know about his misdeeds, including alleged rape of one of his relatives in the Dera.

The agency had earlier filed a chargesheet against five disciples of the Baba, including one Avtar Singh, grandson of the previous head of the Dera, in the case.

The other murder pertained to the killing of Sirsa-based journalist Ram Chander Chatterpati who had written a series of articles on the Dera in his newspaper, Poora Sach.

In this case, the CBI has arrested three persons, including one Krishan Lal who is an accused in both the murder cases. CBI has also recovered the revolver (registered in Krishan Lal’s name) allegedly used by the killers as well as the scooter they rode and the walkie-talkie they used while committing the crime.

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