Rohtak, Haryana: Security has been deployed as rape convict Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, is to face trial today in two murder cases in the special CBI court in Panchkula.
Ram Rahim will appear before the CBI through video conferencing. The Dera chief is remanded in Rohtak’s Sunaria jail and was sentenced to 20 years in prison on August 28 for the conviction of two rape cases.
The CBI court is hearing the cases of murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati and former Dera manager Ranjit Singh. “We have made adequate security arrangements ahead of the hearing in the cases,” Haryana Director General of Police B S Sandhu said here today, reports The Indian Express.
The CBI claimed that both of them were murdered at the behest of the Dera chief after they tried to expose the nefarious activities of Dera.
Besides the Dera chief, his manager Krishan Lal and two shooters — Kuldeep Singh and Nirmal Singh — are the main accused in the Chhatrapati murder case.
Sirsa-based journalist Chhatrapati was shot at in October 2002 after the evening newspaper ‘Poora Sach’, owned by him, published an anonymous letter narrating how women were allegedly being sexually exploited by the sect head at the Dera headquarters in Sirsa. He died later.
The second case relates to the murder of former Dera manager Ranjit Singh who was allegedly shot dead in 2002. He was murdered for his suspected role in the circulation of the anonymous letter, which had made the sexual exploitation allegations, according to the prosecution.