Ram Rahim fined for ‘playing with court proceedings’

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday dismissed two petitions filed by Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim and imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 for “playing with the court proceedings”.

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday dismissed two petitions filed by Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim and imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 for “playing with the court proceedings”.

The order came on his recently filed two petitions in which he had sought examination of a former investigation officer (IO) of the premier agency in 2002 alleged rape case against him. In the second petition he had sought copies of statements recorded by the ex-IO of the two of woman, who had levelled allegations of rape against him.

The bench of justice AB Chaudhari said in the order, “The petitioner could not be allowed to file such applications, when the trial was at the last stage. Still the petitioner made an endeavour to file the applications. The trial court has rightly found that the entire exercise made by the petitioner was with an ulterior motive to delay the trial. The petitioner cannot be allowed to play with the court proceedings in the manner he has done. At any rate, the orders under challenge are legally and factually correct and no interference is required to be made with the impugned orders,” the high court said while dismissing the petitions and imposing a cost of Rs 10,000 per petition.