CHANDIGARH: After about 28 months, Honeypreet Insaan adopted daughter of Dera Sacha Sauda Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim on Monday finally met him in high-security Sunaria Jail in Rohtak.
Sources said that Honeypreet (38), whose real name is Priyanka Taneja and out on bail, met her foster father for about 35 minutes. She reached the jail premises along with three lawyers and chairperson of the dera Shobha Insaan at 2.40 PM and came out at 3.15 PM. She spoke to him on the intercom for about 20 minutes within the jail premises.
The two are meeting for the first time after August 25, 2017, when the Dera chief was convicted for raping two of his disciples and sent to jail. Honeypreet had accompanied him from Panchkula to Rohtak on a helicopter arranged by the state government.
Sources in the dera point out that the meeting gains significance as the chairperson along with the lawyers were present there so Ram Rahim might have issued some instructions since Honeypreet has always been close to the Dera chief.
The state government had been dilly dialling as the Haryana Police was of the view that the meeting between the both could create law and order problem. The police in its report to the jail authorities did not favour the meeting.
But a few days back the Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij was of the view that every person has the equal right to meet the convict and the law cannot stop anyone from meeting that person. After that a legal opinion was taken on the application of Honeypreet to meet Ram Rahim. She had reportedly tried to meet him many times before after she came out of bail as she was lodged in Ambala Central Jail but was denied by the authorities.
Last month, Honeypreet was granted bail after the trial court dropped sedition charges against her and 35 other accused in a case of riot and violence that broke out after Ram Rahim’s arrest in Panchkula in 2017. She is currently staying in sect’s headquarters in Sirsa.
Self-styled godman Ram Rahim was sentenced to twenty years in jail in August 2017 for raping two women disciples. He has a huge fan following in the region.