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Sacrilege cases: Punjab and Haryana HC issues notice on plea from Gurmeet Ram Rahim
Punjab and Haryana HC on Monday sought response from Punjab government on a plea from Dera Sacha Sauda head, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, challenging May 4 order of a Chandigarh court in 2015 sacrilege cases of Punjab
The Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday sought response from Punjab government on a plea from Dera Sacha Sauda head, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, challenging May 4 order of a Chandigarh court in 2015 sacrilege cases of Punjab.
The trial court had dismissed an application moved by Dera head in FIR number 63 of June 2015 seeking entire evidence collected by the Central Bureau of Investigation, during the probe. In 2019, the state withdrew consent to CBI in this FIR and probe was handed over to a state SIT.
As per a plea in January 2021, high court had passed an order directing the state to place evidence collected by both the agencies- CBI and SIT- to the magistrate of Faridkot, where trial was underway. However, an application filed seeking these records was dismissed by the Chandigarh court on May 4.
The trial in 2015 sacrilege incidents was transferred from Punjab to the Chandigarh court upon orders from Supreme Court in February this year.
Three interlinked FIRs were registered in 2015. First FIR was registered on June 2, 2015 which is regarding theft of ‘bir’ of Guru Granth Sahib from Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village on June 1, 2015. The second FIR was registered on September 25, 2015, after derogatory posters were put up at Bargari and third FIR was registered on October 12, 2015 as torn pages of a ‘bir’ were found scattered near Bargari gurdwara. Besides, Ram Rahim, there are seven other people named in the FIR , with Ram Rahim as “main conspirator” as per the report to trial court by the SIT led by the inspector general of police SPS Parmar. The Punjab government has been told to respond by May 24.
