'Charges serious': Court denies bail to Dera head

CHANDIGARH: The detailed judgement report of the Panchkula CBI court, which had rejected dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim's bail plea, was made available on Monday. The court had rejected the plea on August 23.

In the 19-page judgement the special judicial magistrate, CBI, Kapil Rathi, says, "Considering the nature and gravity of the accusations levelled against the applicant and the alleged role played by him, the charges had been framed against him for having committed substantive offences punishable under Sections 326, 417 and 506 of the IPC. The fact that the case is in the initial stage of prosecution, evidence on behalf of the CBI and the material witnesses are yet to be examined in this case. So at this stage, no ground is made out for enlarging the applicant on bail."

The judge further said in his order, "Finding no merits in the averments made in the bail application seeking regular bail under Section 437, CrPC, the same is hereby rejected, being devoid of merits."

Recently, the Panchkula CBI court had framed charges under Sections 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 417 (cheating) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC against Gurmeet, who was charged as prime accused by the CBI in its chargesheet. Besides, charges under Sections 326 and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC were also framed against the dera head and two others - Dr M P Singh, alias Mahender Insan, and Dr Pankaj Garg.

On December 23, 2014, the Punjab and Haryana high court had ordered a CBI investigation into charges of forced castration of dera followers. The CBI had filed a chargesheet in the case three years after the court direction. The petition for probe into forced castration of followers of the sect was filed by dera chief's ex-follower Hans Raj Chauhan in July 2012. The petitioner had alleged that around 400 male devotees, including himself, were castrated inside the dera following false claims by the sect chief that castration would lead to realisation of God through him.

According to the CBI chargesheet, there are six victims and 58 witnesses in the case. The CBI had submitted that Gurmeet had made castrated devotees sign a general power of attorney that authorized his proteges to purchase/gift any land in their (devotees) name. The property used to be later gifted to the dera.