Sacrilege cases: Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim attends court hearing through video conferencing, matter posted to May 16

BATHINDA: Nominated as an accused by the Special Investigations Team (SIT) in cases of sacrilege, Sirsa based Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim attended the court hearing in cases of sacrilege at Faridkot court through video conferencing on Wednesday.
The counsels, who appeared on behalf of Ram Rahim demanded a copy of the challan in the three cases. The court of chief Judicial Magistrate Monika Lamba posted the matter for May 16. The counsels applied for bail in the three cases, the court asked the state to file a reply. The 7 other accused in the cases appeared in person in the court.
Earlier, a bench of Punjab and Haryana high court on May 2 had allowed appearance of Ram Rahim in cases of sacrilege at Faridkot court through video conferencing. Ram Rahim is facing three cases of sacrilege which include theft of the Bir of Guru Granth Sahib from Gurdwara Burj Jawahar Singh Wala on June 1, 2015, putting up handwritten derogatory posters at Burj Jawahar and Bargari on September 25, 2015 and strewing the torn pages from Bir outside Bargari gurdwara on the wee hours of October 12, 2015 which caused a furore in Punjab leading to killing of two protesters at village Behbal Kalan on October 14, 2015.
Ram Rahim though initially was nominated in case of theft of Bir but after the SIT members visited him at Sunaria jail Rohtak, where Ram Rahim is lodged in rape and murder cases, he was nominated in two other cases as well.