The family of a girl, who was living in the Dera Sacha Sauda complex in Sirsa, has claimed that she has been missing after the sect chief, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, was sentenced for rape.
The family from Haryana’s Tiwala claimed that they had not been in touch with Shraddha since 2008. Her cousin Parminder Singh said the last time they got information about her was from a Dera-run magazine which described her as a yoga practitioner.
Search continues
The family, along with other villagers are making frantic efforts to trace her, in Sirsa. “The caretaker of Sahe Baitiyan Baseera [home for minor girls], Poonam, said she had left the Dera after the sect head was convicted,” Mr. Singh said.
Ram Rahim was sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping two of his female disciples by a special CBI court on August 28. “Shraddha was left at the Dera long time back so that she could pursue her education. In 2008, we tried to meet her, but we were not allowed by the Dera functionaries,” he alleged.
“I tried to contact the Dera officials on their phones, but it was futile,” he said, adding that as the area around the sect’s headquarters was under curfew, it was difficult to get inside.