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Castration case: Punjab and Haryana HC allows key witness to appear through VC
The CBI court had allowed Hans Raj to appear through VC and record his statement on August 2 after he had claimed threat to his life.
The Punjab and Haryana high court has upheld the decision of special CBI court Panchkula, allowing deposition through video-conferencing of a key-witness Hans Raj Chauhan in the case of alleged castration of followers involving Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim.
The CBI court had allowed Hans Raj to appear through VC and record his statement on August 2 after he had claimed threat to his life. However, the decision was challenged by one of the accused, Mahender Singh, a doctor arguing that the court is to observe the demeanor of the one deposing which cannot be possible by appearance through VC. Further, the presence in person cannot be replaced.
The court has dismissed the plea observing that in today’s age, for the petitioner to resist proceedings to take place through VC mode appears to be a “delaying tactic”.
It was on February 1, 2018, the CBI had charged the dera head and two doctors in the case. As per the chargesheet, a large number of followers were castrated at the behest of Ram Rahim by Dr Pankaj Garg and Dr Singh, the petitioners. They were charged under Section 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 417 (cheating) of IPC. The CBI had claimed that 128 of 166 followers, whose names were contained in the complaint, were contacted and examined during the probe. Six of them became CBI’s main witness who deposed against the dera head and revealed that they were castrated at his behest at headquarters in Sirsa in early 2000. It was in December 2014, the high court had handed over the probe to CBI on a plea from Hans Raj Chauhan.
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Meanwhile, the Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday reserved its verdict on the plea from Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, against conviction in the murder case of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati in 2002.
The bench presided over by the chief justice Sheel Nagu and justice Vikram Aggarwal reserved the order after completion of arguments from different parties. It was in 2019, a special CBI court had sentenced the dera chief and three others to life imprisonment for the 2002 murder of journalist Chhatarpati. The dera chief, is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for raping two disciples in 2002. He was acquitted in a third case in 2024 by the high court, which involved murder of former dera manager Ranjit Singh, reported in 2002.
