After Rampal, Dera chief Ram Rahim comes under court radar

While the next date for a Dera inmate sexual exploitation case has been fixed for November 29, the two murder cases will come up for hearing on December 6.

Listen to Story

Advertisement
After Rampal, Dera chief Ram Rahim comes under court radar

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh

After controversial godman Rampal, another Haryana-based godman is under the radar of the courts.

The noose around Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has been tightened with a recent decision (November 15) of the Panchkula-based CBI court to hear a murder and rape cases against the godman separately.

While the next date for a Dera inmate sexual exploitation case has been fixed for November 29, the two murder cases will come up for hearing on December 6. The Dera chief did not appear in the court but marked his presence via video conferencing from Sirsa.

advertisement

Earlier on November 14, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had lambasted the Haryana government for having failed to bring babas wanted in murder, rape and contempt of court cases before them. The court, in October, had sought all records pertaining to the murder and rape charges against Ram Rahim.

While hearing a fresh petition against Ram Rahim on November 14, the Bench of Justice K. Kannan, besides issuing the notice to the Haryana government, had observed that "the courts are not run by the babas".

"What do they think of themselves? Demigods? Even Lord Krishna had to spend some time behind bars. The courts are run by judges, not babas...," the court observed.

The rape accusations date back to 2002 when two followers of Ram Rahim had written to then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the chief justice of Punjab, alleging sexual exploitation by the Dera chief. The court had, in September 2002, asked the CBI to probe and a chargesheet was filed on July 30, 2007.