Summon Dera chief in Panchula violence case: Ex-aide Khatta moves court

Khatta Singh, former manager-cum-driver of Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim on Friday moved a local court seeking summoning of the Sirsa Dera chief in a case

Khatta Singh, former manager-cum-driver of Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim on Friday moved a local court seeking summoning of the Sirsa Dera chief in a case pertaining to large-scale violence and arson in Panchkula after his conviction in a rape case on August 25, 2017.

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Making the basis of the FIR number 345 registered by Panchkula police in the context, Khatta Singh in his petition before chief judicial magistrate Rohit Watts sought that the Dera head too be made an accused in the case. The said FIR is the main among 240 FIRs registered in the case.

Singh’s counsel Ravneet Joshi told HT that there is sufficient evidence in the case as per reports filed by Haryana police in the form of challans in the particular FIR, hence this petition.

The court has fixed the next hearing in the case for January 18, 2020.

Charges were framed against Honeypreet alias Priyanka Taneja, the adopted daughter of the Dera head and 39 others in the Panchkula violence case. However, additional district and sessions judge Sanjay Sandhir had dropped sedition charges against Honeypreet and the other accused. Subsequently, Honeypreet was granted bail on November 6, 2019, in the case. Besides Honeypreet, other aides of Dera head Surinder Dhiman, Chamkaur Singh, Daan Singh, Dilawar Singh, Rakesh Kumar, Khairati Lal and Govind Ram are also named as accused in the case.

The CJM court had framed charges under Sections 145 (unlawful assembly), 146 (rioting), 150 (conniving of persons for unlawful assembly), 151 (assembly of five or more persons after orders to disperse), 152 (assaulting or obstructing public servant from duty), 153 (promoting enmity on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, language, etc), and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.

So far, police have arrested 41 accused mentioned in the FIR and the remaining five accused including dera spokesperson Aditya Insan were declared as proclaimed offender by the Panchkula court.

According to the chargesheet, conspiracy to spread violence in Panchkula was hatched at the dera headquarters by Honeypreet and the 45-member Dera management committee. She had also travelled with the Dera head in a helicopter when he was taken from Panchkula to Rohtak’s Sunaria jail after his conviction in the rape case. She had gone into hiding for 38 days before her arrest on October 4, 2017 from Zirakpur-Patiala highway.