Murder cases against Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh: HC asks ex-driver to file affidavit

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday asked the jailed Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim’s former driver Khatta Singh to submit an affidavit detailing changes he wants to make in the statement before the special CBI court in the murder cases against Ram Rahim.

Justice Surinder Gupta, during the hearing of the appeal against the trial court’s rejection of recalling him as a witness in the murder cases, observed the application could be an attempt to delay the trial court proceedings.  “Now you may be in collusion with them…what changes do you want to make,” the High Court bench observed after going through the appeal submitted by Khatta.

The special CBI court hearing the two murder cases, involving the killing of a journalist and a rape survivor’s brother, had last month rejected Khatta’s application for recording his statement afresh in the matter, following which he had  approached the High Court.

Though Khatta had recorded his statement as a prosecution witness in June 2007, he retracted from it in 2012. Khatta has said he had to retract his statement because of the insecurity and threat from Ram Rahim.“He [Gurmeet] was running the writ in Punjab and Haryana during the time and the petitioner was afraid to make the statement against him,” Khatta’s counsel told the bench during the hearing.

The case will now be taken for resumed hearing on October 6.