Sirsa: Police with recovered 85 cartons of firecrackers and explosive materials from the Dera premises in Sirsa on Saturday. PTI Photo
Haryana Police have lodged an FIR under the Explosives Substances Act against the owner of a factory in the Dera Sacha Sauda for illegally storing large amounts of firecrackers. The FIR was lodged after police on Friday recovered 84 cartons of firecrackers from Cattle Healhcare, a factory on campus which was meant to produce cattle feed.
The sanitization operation continued on Saturday, the second day, with authorities confirming the presence of a ‘secret tunnel’ connecting ‘Sadhvi Nivas (the women’s hostel)’ with dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s residence, which is commonly referred to as gufa (cave). According to sources, the officials also found a tunnel inside the dera but it ended abruptly in a wall.
The firecrackers recovered from the dera factory have been shifted to the Sadar police station in Sirsa town. Balwan Singh, a Haryana Police ASI and member of the search team, said, “Further investigation will tell us who stored so many firecrackers and why. The probe is on but no arrest has been made so far.”
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Two minors, who were found inside the dera premises on Friday, were reunited with their family members. One is a Class 7 student from Kaithal town of Haryana who had come to the dera with her mother to attend a satsang and had been left behind, according to an official of the local administration.
The other boy hails from UP but lived in Sirsa with his family. “He is the son of a worker in a biscuit factory inside the dera. After the violence of August 25, all the workers left the factory but he stayed,” said the official.
