Punishment 'way too little': CBI ex-official who charged guru

Baba was too powerful to touch, says Narayanan

Mulinja Narayanan, retired joint director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), who filed the charge sheet against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in two murder and rape cases, in which Baba has been convicted, says the imprisonment for Baba’s crimes is too less.

Narayanan, was serving as Deputy Inspector General (DIG), CBI, Special Crime Region, Delhi, when he was assigned Baba’s case. Narayanan, who was in the city on a trip, told Deccan Herald that  Baba has a huge crime record and the punishment is very less.

According to Narayanan, Baba has spoiled the life of many girls, but many victims have now settled in life and would not recall the torment.

Narayanan, who retired in 2009 as CBI JD, recalling his experience of investigating Baba’s case, said, in 2007, the then CBI director handed him over Baba’s case following a directive of the Punjab High Court. But, two senior officials exerted pressure on him to close it. “Four to five MPs visited the CBI Director, asking him to exert pressure on me to close the case for which I refused,” Narayanan said.

Though the case was filed in 2002, there was no progress till 2007. Due to the lapses, the high court issued a notice to the director to report on the progress in the case. When there was no progress, the court directed to appoint a senior officer to investigate and set a deadline of 57 days to submit the report.

Narayanan and his team submitted the report (164 CrPC statement), in all the three cases, before the CBI Special Court, in Ambala, in 56 days. On the 57th day, the same was produced before the High Court by the CBI Director.

“We prepared and submitted 28 pages of charge sheet and 1,000 pages of supporting documents against Baba in three cases,” Narayanan said.

“When we were assigned the task, we first listed out the missing girls from Dera. In two years, nearly 200 girls were missing and we managed to find out 10 of them. During investigation, only two girls revealed that they were raped. We faced a huge difficulty in recording their statements as the girls were married and their husbands were unaware of the crime. Some girls even approached the National Women’s Commission (NWC), alleging that we were harassing them,” he said.

According to Narayanan, the anonymous complaint by Sadvi reached the high court and then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee via courier. It had been posted from Hoshiarpur in Punjab.

Baba used to live in a cave, enjoying all modern facilities. He used to sexually assault the girls staying in the Dera hostel. There was a direct entry to the ladies hostel from the cave and Baba used to call the girls at 10 pm everyday. All the guards and supervisers of the cave were women, the retired officer explained.

During investigation, the officer used to get threats from several quarters. Baba had maintained a gang of goons to snub the people, who raise voice against him.

Narayanan has been part of several high profile cases and has also been honored with the ‘President Police’ and ‘Indian Police’ awards for his service. The high profile cases include Rajiv Gandhi assassination, Babri Masjid demolition, Kandahar plane hijacking, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir terrorist cases.