CHANDIGARH: A day before the quantum of punishment for Dera Sacha Sauda chief Ram Rahim Singh was to be announced, the Haryana police on Sunday booked five spokespersons of the outfit on charges of sedition and instigating mob violence in Panchkula resulting in the death of 38 people after Ram Rahim was convicted of rape on Friday.
Raids are being conducted at several places to arrest the spokespersons — Dr Aditya Inssan, Dhiman Insaan, Pawan Insaan, Dilawar Insaan and Mohinder Insaan — said an official, adding that the police sanitised 103 ‘naam charcha ghars’ of the outfit and recovered arms from them.
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Among the items recovered were a sword, a knife, 104 sticks, 48 iron rods, 21 bottles of diesel, petrol and kerosene, besides three axes, sickles, saws and 2,574 lathis. The Panchkula police seized a fire tender from Ram Rahim’s cavalcade, which had chemicals instead of water in it’s 12,000-litre tank, said sources, adding that these chemicals might have been used to make petrol bombs.
Haryana Director General of Police (DGP) BS Sandhu said the fire tender is being examined by a special investigation team, and prima facie, the chemical had a neutral pH value and was not inflammable. Luxury vehicles were also seized by the police.
All routes to the Sunaria jail in Rohtak, where the self-styled godman has been lodged, have been sealed. “Our priority now is to ensure that law and order is maintained when the sentencing of Ram Rahim takes place tomorrow,” the DGP said on Sunday.
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All educational institutions in Panchkula, Rohtak, Kaithal, Ambala, Bhiwani and Fatehabad districts of Haryana will remain closed on Monday. While train services in Punjab and Haryana — except in the Delhi-Rohtak-Bathinda section— were restored on Sunday, officials said mobile internet services in the region would remain suspended till Tuesday.
Addressing the nation in his monthly radio programme ‘Mann Ki Baat’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday kept away from mentioning names, but said, “No one has the right to take the law into one’s own hands in the name of personal beliefs... Neither this country nor any government would tolerate those who take the law into their own hands — whether it is a person or group... the guilty will unquestionably be punished.”
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Following the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s order, Deputy Commissioner of Sirsa Prabhjot Singh on Sunday ordered that Dera Sacha Sauda’s assets be attached. Meanwhile, a 35-year-old cameraman of a news channel was attacked by Dera followers in Sirsa when he tried to enter the sect’s campus.
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‘Kin of dead law-breakers won’t get compensation’
During a tour of sensitive districts of Punjab, CM Capt Amarinder Singh asserted that his govt would give no compensation to law-breakers who were killed in the Panchkula carnage. A list of damaged property would be given to HC for recovery of compensation from the Dera, he said. Further 45 preventive arrests have been made and 23 FIRs registered so far, and petrol bombs, guns, and other weapons have been seized.