A Special CBI in Panchkula on Friday convicted Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and three others in a 2003 murder case of a Journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati. The Special CBI Court will announce the sentence in the case on January 17.
Dera Sacha Sauda Chief Gurmeet is currently locked up in a Rohtak’s Sunaria’s Jail since 2017 convicting in a rape case of his two fellow women.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim convicted in the murder case of journalist Ram Chander Chhatarpati by a special CBI court in Panchkula
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Journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati was shot dead in 2002 after his newspaper published an unnamed Letter exposing how women are sexually exploited by Dera Sacha Sauda Chief in Sirsa, Haryana at Dera Headquarter. The murder case was registered in 2002 and was handed to CBI in the year 2006. The probe agency made Gurmeet Singh as the main conspirator in the murder case of 2002.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh who is locked in Rohtak Jail had appeared in the Special Court through Video Conference. Apart from Gurmeet Singh, other three – Kuldeep Singh, Krishan Lal, Nirmal Singh convicted in the murder case will be brought to Ambala Jail.
Ahead of the Judgement, The security in the entire state of Haryana was put on the forefront and Section 144CrPc was imposed throughout the district keeping in mind the violence perpetrated by his supporters in 2017 when he was sentenced to 20-year imprisonment in a rape case of two women. Several companies of the state armed police,
anti-riot police and commando forces were deployed to combat any untoward situation.
Violence had erupted in Panchkula and Sirsa in Haryana on 25 August 2017 following the conviction of the Dera sect head, leaving over 40 persons dead and scores of people injured.
Earlier in 2015, Dera Chief Gurmeet Singh had been booked in mass castration case. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had filed a charge sheet in 2015 against Ram Rahim for allegedly castrating his male followers. Ram Rahim was booked along with two doctors, Pankaj Garg, and MP Singh, under various sections of India Penal Code.
However, the CBI court granted bail to the Dera Sacha Sauda chief in this case last year.