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Dera chief being harassed in jail: Plea

Last Updated 23 October 2019, 18:34 IST

A petition filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court here has claimed that jailed chief of the Dera Sacha Sauda Sect, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, was being mentally and physically harassed inside the prison.

The petitioner, Dr Mohit Gupta, who works at a sect-run hospital in Sirsa, also apprehended threat to the life of the sect's chief.

He has urged the presence of Gurmeet in the court in wake of his claims.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim is lodged inside the Sunaria jail in Haryana’s Rohtak.

He is undergoing a 20-year jail term on being convicted on charges of rape of two of his disciples inside the Dera premises in Sirsa.

The sect chief has also been convicted for murder of a Sirsa-based journalist.

The special CBI court pronouncing him guilty awarded him life imprisonment for the murder.

His sentence of life imprisonment will start at the end of his 20-years jail term.

The petitioner has cited the father of the driver of the jail superintendent, who runs a tea vend outside the jail, to claim that the sect chief was being mentally and physically harassed inside the Sunaria jail.

The petitioner further claimed that he was not allowed to meet the sect chief in the jail.

He said that he was also denied information under the RTI Act where he sought to know the rights of a convict lodged inside the jail. The petition sought adequate security for the Dera chief.

Claiming that the jail had witnessed many gang wars, the petition maintained that the life of Gurmeet was under threat.

In the past over 6 months, there have been few attempts made to seek bail for the convicted sect head, However, for one or the other reason Gurmeet could not walk out on bail.

On August 25, 2017, when the Sect chief was found guilty of raping two women, his followers who had gathered in thousands in Panchkula went berserk that led to police firing.

As many as 40 people were killed in an hour in the police firing in Panchkula and Sirsa, the epicentres of the violence.

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(Published 23 October 2019, 12:33 IST)

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