2015 sacrilege case: Dera chief not cooperating, want to question him again, say police

Punjab’s senior deputy advocate general Gaurav Garg Dhuriwala submitted that Ram Rahim was not cooperating and he needed to be grilled again

Punjab Police on Friday told the Punjab and Haryana high court that it wanted to grill Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim again in a 2015 sacrilege case.

Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim .

Punjab’s senior deputy advocate general Gaurav Garg Dhuriwala submitted that Ram Rahim was not cooperating and he needed to be grilled again. So, the state police be given permission for the same.

Hearing a bail plea of Ram Rahim, the high court bench of justice Manoj Bajaj deferred the hearing for December 17 and orally observed that police do not need court’s permission for questioning. Punjab Police are yet to file a formal response to Ram Rahim’s bail plea.

The court was hearing an anticipatory bail plea from Ram Rahim moved last month. On October 28, the high court had stayed production warrants issued against the dera chief by a Fairdkot court and had asked police to quiz him in Rohtak’s Sunaria jail, if so desired. Subsequently, a special team of Punjab Police had gone to Rohtak on November 8 for questioning the dera head.

Ram Rahim’s role is being probed in a sacrilege case registered on June 2, 2015, at the Bajakhana police station in Faridkot. According to the Punjab Police, the dera head has emerged as a main conspirator.

The three incidents of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib, holiest scripture of Sikhs, were reported in 2015. After the sacrilege incidents, the protests started at two places in Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan. On October 14, 2015, two protesters were killed in Behbal Kalan in alleged police firing.

As of dera head, he is lodged in Sunaria jail of Rohtak since August 25, 2017. In 2017, he was awarded 20-year jail term for the rape of two disciples. Subsequently, he has been convicted in murder cases of a journalist, Ram Chander Chhatrapati, and Ranjit Singh, a former dera manager, in which life sentence has been awarded.