Punjab: Badal government let off dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, but in 2007, says lawyer to jathedar

JALANDHAR: When Akal Takht jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh has objected to the alleged dropping of Sirsa dera chief’s name from a sacrilege case of 2015, a charge that the special investigation team has denied, a lawyer has witten to him that the actual case is from 2007, and the Badal government of that time had let off Gurmeet Ram Rahim.
Jaspal Singh Manjhpur is lawyer in the blasphemy case of 2007 against Gurmeet Ram Rahim. He wrote to the jathedar that while the Badal government had let off the dera chief, the later Amarinder government had failed to investigate this relief. Manjhpur is defence lawyer in several UAPA (Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act) cases that were registered when the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) or the Congress was in power.
The lawyer wrote to the jathedar: “Sirsa dera head’s imitation of Guru Gobind Singh in 2007 at Salabatpura was a prelude to the sequence of sacrilege. The Badals were in power in Punjab when the dera head was booked in this case. After a while, it became clear that Punjab Police wanted to shut the case, so Hardeep Singh Mehraj and I impleaded ourselves as complainants. Despite glaring evidence against the dera chief, police filed a cancellation report in January 2012, just before the assembly elections.”
He wrote that the cancellation report had “political motives” but he had moved the high court, yet neither Badal nor Amarinder had tried to prosecute and punish the dera chief. The letter reads: “The case is pending but no Sikh representative in nine years has shown interest in taking it up. Even Badal and BJP have acted against the Guru, though you point finger at only the present chief minister. As jathedar, you said the Khalsa Panth was capable of doing justice on its own... but let’s not confine the context to the current time or vote politics. The case is only a step latter to power in Punjab. Those in power strike deals with those behind sacrilege.”
Even as Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar and MLA Pargat Singh have asked for reopening the case, their own government hasn’t respondent. However, after the jathedar spoke on Wednesday, the SAD also accused the government of letting off the dera head.