Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has put Sirsa based controversial godman and dera sacha sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim and the Punjab government on notice while taking up a petition moved by Advocate Jaspal Singh and Baba Hardeep Singh challenging lower court’s decision to close 2007 Salabatpura incident case against dera head.
Petitioners have challenged the acceptance of the closure report against the dera head by the Bathinda Sessions Court in August last year.
![Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Badal with DSS head Gurmeet Ram Rahim [File Photo]](https://sikhsiyasat-en.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Parkash-Singh-Badal-and-Sukhbir-Badal-with-DSS-head-Gurmeet-Ram-Rahim.jpg)
Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Badal with DSS head Gurmeet Ram Rahim [File Photo]
The petition moved by Advocate Navkiran Singh maintians that the accused, being head of a dera and having a substantial following, has always used his vote bank to play politics and to get away with his crimes.
“In a similar manner, he was able to influence the Badal government by supporting the daughter-in-law of the Chief Minister for the parliamentary elections in Bathinda and the favour was returned by the Badal government by not completing the investigation in an FIR for a period of almost four years”.
In the petition placed before Justice Surinder Gupta, the petitioner submitted that a function by the dera head at Salabatpura in Bathinda on May 11, 2007, was an established fact.
At the function, the dera head allegedly attempted to personify himself as the Tenth Sikh Guru and administered “Jaam-e-Insan” to his followers. This act had hurt the religious sentiments of the Sikhs. “The Sessions Judge has unnecessarily been swayed and overwhelmed by the false claims of the accused….and has totally ignored that the accused is facing trial on rape and murder charges at the Special Court, Panchkula, and he is a man with a criminal background,” counsel Navkiran Singh said on the petitioners’ behalf.
The Bathinda police had registered a case against the dera head at the Kotwali police station on May 20, 2007, for hurting the sentiments of the Sikhs.
On January 25, 2012, the Punjab Police filed a closure report in the case on the grounds that the complainant had simply filed an affidavit alleging the blasphemous act and was not an eyewitness to it.