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CBI court holds Dera Sacha Sauda head guilty of Ranjit Singh’s murder
Quantum of punishment in Ranjit Singh murder case to be pronounced on October 12; five other accused also convicted
A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Panchkula on Friday held Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim guilty of murdering his follower, Ranjit Singh, in 2002.
The judgment was pronounced by special CBI judge Sushil Kumar Garg and the quantum of punishment will be awarded on October 12.
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“The special CBI court has convicted Gurmeet Ram Rahim under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code for murder. Five other accused too have been convicted,” CBI special prosecutor HPS Verma said.
HC dismissed victim’s son’s plea to transfer trial
On Tuesday, the high court had dismissed a plea of Ranjit Singh’s son Jagseer Singh seeking the transfer of trial to another court in neighbouring states, levelling allegations against a CBI lawyer. However, the high court termed the allegations based upon surmises and conjectures.
Acting on the plea of Jagseer Singh, the high court stayed further proceedings on August 24, two days before the trial court was to pronounce the final judgment.
Ranjit Singh, a follower of Ram Rahim, was shot dead by four assailants on July 10, 2002, at his native Khanpur Kolian village in Kurukshetra.
Ranjit highlighted sexual abuse of women disciples
According to the CBI, he was murdered as Ram Rahim suspected that he was behind the circulation of an anonymous letter highlighting sexual exploitation of female disciples at the dera.
The dera head is lodged in Rohtak’s Sunaria Jail, serving a 20-year jail term for raping two disciples.
There were mainly three cases registered against the Sirsa-based dera chief in 2002. All were investigated by the CBI. The dera chief has been convicted in two cases, one related to sexual exploitation of women disciples and the second of the murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati. The third case was of Ranjit Singh in which he was convicted on Friday. The first conviction was in a sexual exploitation case in August 2017, which had resulted in widespread violence in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh.
