Search operations at Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters to begin on Friday; curfew in Sirsa

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Chandigarh: The headquarters of Dera Sacha Sauda in Sirsa will on Friday be searched and sanitised under the supervision of retired District and Sessions Judge, AKS Pawar.

Ahead of the search operation, Sirsa District Collector Prabhjot Singh on Thursday said that there will be no relaxation in curfew from Friday till the search operation concludes in the area.

The government had made elaborate security arrangements to maintain law and order.

The Sirsa DC said 41 companies of CAPF, four columns of Army and police force have been deployed to ensure that search operation is conducted smoothly. Among the central forces, CRPF, Sashastra Seema Bal, Rapid Action Force and BSF are deployed in Sirsa.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday had given its nod to the Manohar Lal Khattar led Haryana government to sanitise Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters and appointed a Court Commissioner to oversee the process.

AKS Pawar reached Sirsa on Thursday and took stock of things before the process is undertaken.

The court order came after the Haryana Police seized a cache of 33 licensed weapons of the Dera Sacha Sauda. The weapons included 14 revolvers, nine guns, four rifles and other modified weapons.

The premises of the Dera, whose chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was jailed in rape case, is spread over 800 acres and houses educational institutions, markets, hospital, stadium, recreational areas and houses.

The maverick self-styled godman was on August 25 convicted of rape by CBI judge Jagdeep Singh for the rape of two female disciples in 1999.

The sect chief was convicted by a Panchkula Special Court on August 25 for the rape of two female disciples in 1999. He was sentenced to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment.

The CBI judge held the 50-year-old flamboyant chief of the dera, guilty of rape in a case that was registered on the basis of an anonymous written complaint in 2002 that he had sexually exploited two female followers.

His conviction led to violence in Panchkula and Sirsa in Haryana, leaving 38 people dead and 264 injured. Isolated incidents of violence were also reported from Delhi and several other places in Punjab.