Dera chief relying on community work for proving innocence

CHANDIGARH: In a bid to prove innocence in the Ram Chander Chhatrapati murder case, Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim is apparently relying upon community work done by the dera during an earthquake and other natural calamities.
All this became apparent from the list of defence witnesses submitted by Gurmeet’s counsel before special CBI Judge Jagdeep Singh. Documents accessed by TOI revealed that while providing the details of witnesses before the special CBI judge in Panchkula, the dera head had justified the relevance of witnesses. The court has fixed July 23 as the next date of hearing while issuing summons to all.

Interestingly, the list include the then bureaucrats from Gujarat and Rajasthan, who had issued commendation letters to Dera Sacha Sauda for its role during the 2001 earthquake in Gujarat and a natural calamity in Rajasthan. Similarly, the district administration of Barmer and Sriganganagar had issued commendation letters to him in June 2001. Among the bureaucrats from Gujarat named as witnesses included A K Sharma, the then relief-in-charge of Kutch, K Soman, ADDO and in-charge Rapar control room, Bhuj, and staffers of their office.

The officers from Rajasthan include Ajitabh Sharma, the then DM of Barmer and currently principal secretary to the Rajasthan government, and Mool Chand Arya, former DM of Barmer, and Kiran Soni Gupta, the then collector of Sriganganagar district and currently posted in the department of youth affairs, government of India. While Umesh Nanda, the then commissioner of Hisar division and a resident of Sector 22, Chandigarh, who too had issued a commendation letter to the dera head.

Besides this, others who have been named as defence witnesses include a staffer from the Punjab and Haryana high court and the staff of special CBI magistrate Kapil Rathi, who recorded the statements of Khatta Singh in the case of castration. Finally, the dera had requested to summon the officials of Sirsa district administration, along with a register containing entries of dera followers, who had given an undertaking of staying away from drugs and any kind intoxicants after ‘naamdaan’.

Besides dera chief, his manager Krishan Lal and two shooters —Kuldeep Singh and Nirmal Singh — are the main accused in the Chhatrapati murder case. According to the CBI charge-sheet, Krishan had given his licensed revolver and a walkie-talkie of the dera to the two shooters in the presence of the dera chief and thereafter both accused fired at Chhatrapati in front of his residence on October 24, 2002.

In yet another set back to a special investigation team (SIT) probing the violence at Hafed chowk on August 25, Surjeet Singh, a security guard of Hartron building, turned hostile during the course of trial in the court of judicial magistrate on Thursday. Defence counsel S K Rohila said Singh was one of the private witnesses who claimed to be an eyewitness in the case. He admitted being there at the time of incident but failed to identify any of the accused. A total of 38 persons, including dera’s Panchkula coordinators Chamkaur Singh, Surender Dhiman Insan, Pawan Kumar and others, were named as accused in the case.