Ram Rahim approaches Punajb and Haryana HC against conviction

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh (Express Photo by Vikram Joy)

TERMING THE conviction order against him by a Panchkula CBI court “perverse and illegal”, Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim – who was convicted of raping two of his women disciples and sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment by the trial court last month, on Monday moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court praying for his acquittal in the case.

“The Ld. Special Judge (CBI), Haryana, Panchkula, has misconstrued the evidence and has not appreciated and considered the oral evidence, documentary evidence and other evidence on record in the right perspective, therefore the impugned Judgment of conviction Dated 25.08.2017 and order of sentence dated 28.08.2017, is perverse and illegal and deserve to be set aside and consequently the accused-appellant is entitled to be acquitted honorably in this case,” Ram Rahim has said in his petition filed through his counsel, Vishal Garg Narwana.

Saying there are contradictions and omissions in the testimony of the prosecution witnesses, Ram Rahim has said the trial court has ignored the “peculiar feature” of the case that the FIR was registered on the basis of an anonymous complaint. “It is a highly delayed FIR for a period of two-three years and it is not a substantive piece of evidence as the maker of the same had not at all been identified. It was lodged without there been any specific order for the registration of the FIR.”

Ram Rahim’s plea said the trial court approach in the case “appears to be extraordinarily leaning towards the prosecution” which has resulted into “serious prejudice” to the presumption of innocence guaranteed to an accused by the constitution.

“(The) learned trial court has adopted a totally illegal and erroneous approach that the word of the mouth of a prosecutrix in a rape case must be accepted by the Court as a gospel truth,” the petition reads. “The evidence of the prosecutrix has to be assessed individually according to the facts and circumstances of each case including the delay in the reporting of the matter, the age, education and background of the prosecutrix, the medical evidence and other corroborative circumstances like place of occurrence, time of occurrence, cause of occurrence, bias of investigating agency etc.”

On August 28, Ram Rahim was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment by the trial court in the FIR registered against him in 2002. The High Court had directed the CBI to investigate the matter regarding allegations of sexual assault against dera ‘sadhvis’ by Ram Rahim. The case was initiated by the court after the Chief Justice had received an anonymous letter mentioning the crimes committed by the Sirsa-based Ram Rahim against his disciples.