No untoward incident in Sirsa; Dera accounts to be attached: official

No untoward incident was reported from Sirsa after the pronouncement of the quantum of sentence of Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who has been convicted in a rape case, a senior Haryana government official said today.

Speaking to reporters here, IAS officer V Umashankar also said that the district authorities had ordered the attachment of the Sirsa-based Dera's accounts and compensation to those affected in the violence earlier could be given from these.

"There was no report of any untoward incident and I hope that peace will be maintained," Umashankar said.

He said excluding the permanent residents of the area, many of whom were also Dera followers, the number of other supporters in the sect's headquarters in Sirsa was not more than a thousand.

Umashankar said that the deputy commissioner of Sirsa had ordered the attachment of the accounts of Dera Sacha Sauda and compensation to the people affected by violence during the episode may be given from these as per court orders.

A senior IAS officer, Umashankar is posted as the Commissioner, Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG), but has been assigned special duty to assist the Sirsa administration, which is on a high alert keeping in view the Dera chief's conviction.

Talking about the possibility of firearms being there in the sect headquarters, Umashankar said that some weapons were in the name of Dera and some were registered in the names of individuals.

He said that from the day of Ram Rahim Singh's conviction by a court in Panchkula on August 25, the state authorities had worked to ensure that the violent mob doesn't move towards Sirsa.

We were conscious that if such a mob comes towards the city and indulges in violence and arson, then it would have been very difficult to control and we had accordingly deployed our forces, he said.

Our second objective was that if the violence takes place, we have to contain it in a specific area and prevent it from spreading, he said.

The third objective was to exercise maximum restraint, which was not entirely possible in this kind of situation, but still we had to exercise it and not allow it to escalate, Umashankar added.

I am happy to tell you that due to the alertness of our forces, with the support of Army, personal leadership of Sirsa DC and SP, incidents of arson and looting were prevented, he said.