'Sirsa dera may have been cleansed before sanitation'

CHANDIGARH: There is every possibility that the managers of Dera Sacha Sauda deliberately removed incriminating material from the Sirsa headquarters before it was santised. This has been stated in the report of Anil Kumar Singh Panwar, who was appointed court commissioner after the violence in Panchkula last year following dera head Gurmeet Ram Rahim's conviction in rape cases.
There had been reports of cash and incriminating documents being removed from the dera before the sanitisation operations began. In his report, Panwar has stated that a thorough search was conducted by the teams, so much so that carpets were pulled out to ensure that nothing was lying concealed in the various buildings.

"However, it is strange that no ornament or currency was seized from the search of the entire dera, particularly from the residence of the dera head and his children," the report reads. "The possibility, thus, cannot be ruled out that valuable and incriminating material had been deliberately removed from dera premises much before the start of search/sanitization operation."

The three-page report, a copy of which is with TOI, adds that two facts strengthen suspicions even further. Some of the computers had damaged or replaced hard discs and, despite the sprawling campus, no cash or ornaments were found.

A full bench of the high court, headed by Justice Surya Kant, had directed Panwar to submit a fact-finding report on the sanitization operation after senior advocate Anupam Gupta had said that the earlier report was merely a compilation of documents without any findings.

"Apparently the court commissioner has misconceived his responsibilities. He should have given his findings and inferences in his report. It is really difficult to assist the court on the basis of such report that is compialation of annexures", Gupta had told the high court. The three-page report was submitted to the high court administration recently.

This is for the first that a report by a judicial officer has pointed to the possibility of material being removed from the dera premises. On February 6, Sirsa police had told the high court that Vineet Kumar, the dera's IT head, had confessed that a senior dera functionary, Balraj, had taken away two vans filled with cash from the headquarters a day after the Panchkula violence.

Former Sirsa SP Ashwin Shenvi had also admitted before the high court on November 8, 2017 that there was a possibility of some material being moved out of the dera between August 25 and 28.