New allegations say Gurmeet Ram Rahim followers self-immolated, committed suicide on his order

More than three dozen people were killed in Panchkula alone in the violence on August 25, when Gurmeet Ram Rahim's followers went on a rampage and indulged in bloodshed for their spiritual leader.

When quizzed by the Panchkula police, the Dera followers had claimed that Gurmeet Ram Rahim was innocent and they can go to any length to take the revenge. Some even threatened to erase the nation from the world map. Such was the blind faith for the Dera chief.

However, the harsh reality, which most of Gurmeet Ram Rahim followers will still refuse to buy is that he treated his followers as mere animals meant for sacrifice. This has been revealed by Ram Rahim's own former follower Ram Kumar Bishnoi in a petition moved in Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The petitioner has demanded a CBI probe into the allegations citing cases of self immolation and suicides committed by Dera followers. In his complaint, the petitioner said that Gurmeet Ram Rahim had asked his followers to self immolate and commit suicide to put pressure on the court and the local administration apparently to slow down his own summons. The Dera chief was annoyed after the CBI Court started hearing the rape, castration and murder cases on a regular basis.

It is due to the dangerous pressure tactics adopted by Gurmeet Ram Rahim that he rarely made personal appearances in the courts, except for a couple of times. Most of the times, he appeared via video conferencing. Haryana Police never dared to bring him to the court citing law and order problem.

His followers, some of them females, allegedly started committing suicides on Gurmeet Ram Rahim's appeal made during the discourses delivered by him in Sirsa besides Punjab and Rajasthan.

"The suicides by several Dera Sacha Sauda Sirsa followers which are actually murders because all these and some other incidents of alleged suicides occurred due to the instigation of Dera head Gurmeet Ram Rahim and his associates to put pressure on the state government and under deep rooted conspiracy to put pressure on the administration of justice," said the petition filed by a former Dera follower named Ram Kumar Bishnoi.

Ram Kumar Bishnoi is not the only former Dera followers who has accused Gurmeet Ram Rahim of using his followers as sacrificial animals. Two other followers named Gurdas Singh Toor and Khatta Singh have also leveled serious allegations against Gurmeet Ram Rahim.

Khatta Singh, a former driver of Gurmeet Ram Rahim, told India Today that the Dera chief, during his discourses called as Naam Charcha, would ask his followers to come forward to sacrifice their life since their guru was in trouble.

Another former Dera follower Gurdas Singh Toor said Gurmeet Ram Rahim would ask his devoted followers to sign a declaration that they were sacrificing their lives for the Dera.

ALLEGATIONS OF SELF-IMMOLATION AND SUICIDE

1 Followers who self immolated themselves at the behest of Gurmeet Ram Rahim include Jaswinder Singh a resident of Chak Atar Singh Wala ,Shyam Sunder Bansal of Bhatinda and Gurjeet Singh of Bangi Nihal Singh Wala.

2 Dera follower Surajbhan, who hailed from Jind in Haryana, had killed himself outside the Sirsa judicial court complex after Gurmeet Ram Rahim's appeal.

3 Vinod Kumar followed Suraj Bhan and killed himself with his gun in Sirsa court complex parking.

4 Gurdev Singh, resident of Sangrur, committed suicide inside the Dera Sacha Sauda complex after Gurmeet Ram Rahim's alleged appeal. This was followed by Satpal, another Dera follower, who had killed himself with a gun.

The new allegations against Gurmeet Ram Rahim can be an eye opener for the his loyal followers who still believe that he is innocent and has been falsely implicated.

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