CHANDIGARH, COIMBATORE: It was not just the Dera Sacha Sauda followers, known as ‘Premis’, who were lathi-charged by the Haryana Police and the paramilitary forces after Dera followers went on the rampage on Friday following the conviction of their chief Gurmit Ram Rahim by the special CBI court in Panchkula.
A group of around 10 truck drivers who had come from Coimbatore to Panchkula to load apples and go back to Tamil Nadu and Kerela were also at the receiving end. Thye had parked their trucks in an open ground near Hotel Holiday Inn in Panchkula and were hanging around a place where some Dera supporters had gathered.
The police mistook the truck drivers for Dera Sacha Sauda supporters and beat them up. They completely ignored the repeated requests of the drivers who said they were not Dera supporters but were from down south in Coimbatore.
Aslam, one of the truck drivers, told Express over phone, “we came with material from Coimbatore, unloaded it in Delhi and from there reached Panchkula to load apples and return. We parked our trucks at a open ground in Panchkula. When the mob violence began, policemen beat us up as well us despite our clarification that we were not Dera supporters but truck drivers from Tamil Nadu.’’ “The police did not listen to us. Our vehicles were also damanged,’’ he added.