India

Gurmeent Ram Rahim: Final arguments for two murder cases today in Panchkula

Panchkula: Rape convict Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, currently lodged in Rohtak jail, is facing trial in two murder cases in the special CBI court in Panchkula through video conferencing, beginning Saturday.

Security has been beefed up around the Panchkula District Court and media is not allowed inside the court.

Reports said that the Haryana police personnel and paramilitary staff has been deployed in and around the Panchkula district courts complex to ensure law and order, where the hearing will be held at the special Central Bureau of India (CBI) court.

CBI judge Jagdeep Singh granted permission in this regard on Friday after Panchkula deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Mahabir Singh moved an application before the court, contending that they cannot bring the dera chief in person due to law and order problem.

Ram Rahim has been sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment in Rohtak’s Sunaria jail since August 25 on two counts of rape of his female followers.

The dera chief has been named as the main conspirator in the murder cases of Sirsa-based journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati and dera member Ranjit Singh.

While Ranjit Singh was killed near his village in Kurukshetra district in July 2002, Chhatrapati was shot dead in front of his house in Sirsa a couple of months later in October 2002.

The CBI claimed that both of them were murdered at the behest of the dera chief after they tried to expose the nefarious activities of dera.

According to reports, Ram Rahim’s former driver Khatta Singh moved an application in the CBI special court, urging it to re-record his statement.

Singh was a witness in the murder cases against Ram Rahim and had recorded his statement in 2007. However, he later turned hostile in 2012.

Singh now says that he turned hostile as he was under pressure from ‘baba and his goons’.

“With Ram Rahim behind bars, I want to record my statement again,” Singh said.

The court will hear the application on September 22.

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