Dera Sacha Sauda Chief- Sant Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh during the Discourse in sector-5 of Panchkula. Express photo by Vikram Joy.
The Delhi Police on Sunday dismissed as rumours reports of schools in the national capital being shut tomorrow in view of the sentencing of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. Social media was abuzz with rumours that the police has instructed schools to remain closed as it anticipates violence.
However, Madhur Verma, the Delhi Police’s Public Relations Officer, refuted such reports. “Schools will remain open tomorrow. There are no instructions from #DelhiPolice to close them. Social media rumors should not be believed (sic),” Verma posted on Twitter. Several cases of torching of DTC buses and train coaches were reported from different parts of the city on Friday, following the Dera chief’s rape conviction by a special CBI court in Haryana’s Panchkula.
Verma also dismissed a “traffic advisory” purportedly issued by the police. “Fake traffic advisory circulated, no such advisory issued. No road closures, metro remains as per schedule,” he said. The 50-year-old Dera chief, who was convicted in a 15- year-old rape case, has been lodged in a jail in Sunaria on the outskirts of Rohtak, where a CBI judge will be flown tomorrow to pronounce his sentence.
