Dera Sacha Sauda chief Ram Rahim Singh's trial in 2 murder cases begins

Chandigarh: A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court begins hearing in two murder cases against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

The hearing is being done through video conferencing.

The CBI court is hearing the final arguments in the two murders cases of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati and former Dera manager Ranjit Singh.

Security has been tightened in Panchkula town in Haryana. Director General of Police BS Sandhu said that adequate para military and Haryana Police personnel had been stationed around the court complex in Sector 1 and other areas in Panchkula town to maintain law and order.

The self-styled godman was sentenced to 20 years in jail on 28 August in the two rape cases by the special CBI Court. Several parts of Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan had witnessed large-scale violence following his conviction in the two rape cases on 25 August.

While forty-one people were killed in Haryana in the violence, no deaths were reported from Punjab and Rajasthan.

Sirsa-based journalist Chhatrapati was shot at in October 2002 after the evening newspaper ‘Poora Sach’, owned by him, published an anonymous letter narrating how women were allegedly being sexually exploited by the sect head at the Dera headquarters in Sirsa. He died later.

The second case relates to the murder of former Dera manager Ranjit Singh who was allegedly shot dead in 2002. He was murdered for his suspected role in the circulation of the anonymous letter, which had made the sexual exploitation allegations, according to the prosecution.

The Punjab and Haryana high court had ordered a CBI probe in November 2003 into the two murders after the families of both the victims approached the court. The CBI had filed the charge sheet in the murder cases on 30 July, 2007.