The CBI chargesheet in the castration case states that six castrated devotees had deposed against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim. They said that they had been castrated against their wish at the behest of Ram Rahim and two doctors — Dr MP Singh and Dr Pankaj Garg — inside dera-run institutions.
Probe shows that the surgery was done at Shah Satnam Ji General Hospital in Rajasthan’s Gurusar Modia and other such places. The CBI carried out spot inspections of operation theatres in these places and observed that these were equipped for the surgeries.
‘Aim was to make devotees dependent on dera’
The document adds that the dera chief resorted to castration of sewadars from 1999-2000 onwards to emasculate (deprive the male of his identity) them. The document also quotes an incident of 1999, when Sukhdev Singh Diwana, a member of the managing committee, caught a young devotee Baljinder Singh, alias Jidda, stalking woman devotees. An angry Gurmeet had publicly threatened all followers with castration, the chargesheet adds. “Gurmeet Ram Rahim, with the malicious intention of getting castrated these young devotees, played with their emotions. He adopted threatening tactics to pressure the young and poor devotees to acquiesce to his unethical demands …if they wanted to live in dera they have to themselves castrated,” the chargesheet states.
‘Special treatment for castrated devotees’
{{/usCountry}}‘Special treatment for castrated devotees’
{{/usCountry}}“He was more accessible to the castrated devotees and personally met the young to inspire them for castration.” The castrated male devotees were deployed to safeguard his dwelling place, the Gufa, and for security of dwelling places of the female devotees.
‘Got signed GPAs, gifted their properties to the dera’
Ram Rahim made the castrated devotees to sign general power of attorney that authorised his protégés to purchase/gift any land in the devotees’ name without their consent. Finally, the property was gifted to the dera, the charge-sheet adds.
Financial angle
Investigation revealed that castrations were pushed in the dera since there was resentment among devotees in 1999-2000 due to growing affluence of Ram Rahim and his aides. Ram Rahim allegedly got large bungalows constructed for himself, his family members and aides at the cost of poor sewadars.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim was afraid of rising dissidence among young sadhus and planned to castrate boys who were likely to demand financial help from the dera.