‘Suicides’ by dera followers : HC seeks Haryana’s response on plea

Punjab and Haryana High Court

THE PUNJAB and Haryana High Court Tuesday sought a response from Haryana government on a plea seeking revival of a 2015 case in which CBI probe had been sought into the alleged suicides of some Dera Sacha Sauda followers during the pendency of the rape cases against Dera head Gurmeet Ram Rahim.

A division bench of Chief Justice S J Vazifdar and Justice Harinder Singh Sidhu issued a notice in the application which, according to the petitioner, had remained undecided when the main litigation on the alleged imparting of weapons training to the activists of Dera Sacha Sauda at its Sirsa headquarters was disposed of by the court.

Ram Kumar Bishnoi, a former follower of the dera, in 2015 had written to the HC by post alleging the “suicides” were in fact murders allegedly committed by Ram Rahim and his aides as part of a “deep-rooted conspiracy”. The application was sent to the judicial side for hearing and was listed with the other Dera-related case.

Advocate Mohinder Singh Joshi, in the fresh application, has said the case remained pending because Bishnoi’s application was registered with the main case on the weapons training which was decided by a High Court division bench on May 14 in 2015.

“The letter was required to be registered as a separate writ petition and this fact was not brought to the kind notice of the High Court. Therefore CBI may be directed to investigate all cases of alleged suicides/murders relating to Dera followers at the instigation of Dera Head under deep rotted conspiracy as alleged in the letter,” he has said. Taking strong note of the application on January 14 in 2015, the High Court had issued a notice to the Dera for a response.