End of Gurmeet Ram
Rahim's regime !
K S Chawla
Jagdeep Singh
'Bakre ki maa kab tak khair
manaegi'. At long last, the end of
the self-styled spiritual guru
Gurmeet Ram Rahim has come,
thanks to the fifteen years
delayed investigation into the
rape case by the CBI. The CBI court at
Panchkula headed by Jagdeep Singh
judge has convicted and punished
Gurmeet Ram Rahim for 20 years on
the charges of rape of two female
followers (Sadhvis). He was put
Violence caused by Dera Sacha Sauda followers
each case and the sentences will run
consecutively which means the Baba
will have to remain in the jail for
twenty years.
Earlier on August 25, the CBI judge
declared him guilty and convicted
which resulted into largescale
violence at Panchkula and Sirsa, the headquarters of the Dera. The
followers of the Dera, who had
collected in large number at
Panchkula, resorted to rampage and
burnt the government and private
property.
Similar violence was witnessed at
Sirsa where the Milk Plant Vita was
razed to ground and large number of
buses and other vehicles were set on
fire. The largescale violence in
Panchkula and Sirsa took place
despite the repated warnings by the
Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The High Court had warned the
BJP Government in Haryana that the
state had already witnessed violence
during the jat agitation and Baba
Rampal episode. As many as 36
persons were killed in Panchkula.
Incidents of violence were also
witnessed in Punjab in the Malwa
belt comprising the districts of
Sangrur, Mansa, Barnala, Faridkot,
Ferozepur and towns like Malout.
Curfew had to be imposed in both
the states and internet services were
also suspended. However, the damage in Punjab was quite less
compared with the mayhem in
Haryana.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh taken out of Panchkula court after rape
conviction
In Punjab, the civil and the police
administration had been given a free
hand to handle the situation while in
Haryana, the Khattar government
was soft towards Gurmeet Ram Rahim followers.
The case on the charges of rape
and intimidation against Gurmeet
Ram Rahim was registered in 2002 by
the CBI on the directions of the
Punjab and Haryana High Court after
an anonymous letter was received by
the Chief Justice from a sadhvi who
had been a victim of sexual assault by
the Dera head Gurmeet Ram.
As a matter of fact, the
anonymous letter had been written
to the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee and copies of the same
were sent to the Chief Justice of India
and the Chief Justice of the Punjab
and Haryana High Court. The High
Court took suo moto notice of the
letter and ordered the enquiry into
the same.
Credit must go to the CBI team of
investigators who collected a few
hundred sadhvis of Dera and
recorded their statements. Although
almost all narrated their woes
but two sadhvis took the stand
and recorded their statement
on the basis of which the FIR was registered against the Baba.
There were many pitfalls in the
investigations as Baba Gurmeet Ram
Rahim enjoyed political patronage of
all the political parties namely BJP,
Congress, Indian National Lok Dal
and the Shiromini Akali Dal. Since he
had a strong following in Punjab and
Haryana, all the political parties were
vying with each other to gain the
support of the Dera followers and
they were bowing to the diktats of
Gurmeet Ram.
Following political patronage,
Credit must go to the CBI
team of investigators who
collected a few hundred
sadhvis of Dera and
recorded their
statements. Although
almost all narrated their
woes but two sadhvis
took the stand and
recorded their statement
on the basis of which the
FIR was registered
against the Baba. There
were many pitfalls in the
investigations as Baba
Gurmeet Ram Rahim
enjoyed political
patronage of all the
political parties namely
BJP, Congress, Indian
National Lok Dal and the
Shiromini Akali Dal.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim managed to
build a strong empire and at present
assets worth Rs. 6000 crores
including agriculture land worth 700
acres. He started social activities
within his empire and setup schools,
colleges and hospital within the dera
premises. He provided all the
facilities which the state should have
given to the downtrodden.
The provision of facilities attracted a very large number of people from
various weaker sections and Baba
virtually became the spiritual guru.
But along with social activities Baba
turned a devil and started sexually
exploiting the women followers. Even
teenaged girls became his victims. He
also allegedly castrated nearly 500
youngmen and made them impotent
and employed them at his Dera.
Baba had become so powerful
that he did not bother about the state
laws and even employed armymen to
give weapon training to his followers
at the Dera. The intelligence agencies
had warned the Central government
and states about the designs of the
Baba, but they did not bother to take
any action because they were more
concerned about the vote bank of six
crores in Punjab, Haryana and
adjoining states.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha poll, Baba
extended support to the BJP led by
Narendra Modi and Modi himself
came to meet him at Sirsa. Similarly
in the Vidhan Sabha election in
Haryana which followed the Lok
Sabha poll, Baba extended support
to the BJP and the entire Haryana
cabinet led by Chief Minister
Manohar Lal Khattar went to Sirsa to
thank Gurmeet Ram Rahim. Not only
this, just few days before the verdict
against Baba, the Haryana
Government presented a cheque of
Rs. 51 lakh to him on his 50th
birthday on August 15. The money of
the tax payers was disbursed to a
serial rapist.
In Punjab, the Shiromini Akali Dal
has been extending all the facilities to
Baba to gain his political patronage
and get votes for the Vidhan Sabha
and Lok Sabha polls.
In May 2007, Baba Ram Rahim
became so daring that he dressed
himself as Guru Gobind Singh and
baptized his followers in the Dera.
This enraged the Sikhs all over the
world and the Punjab state witnessed
clashes among the Sikhs and the
supporters of Baba as a result of
which two Sikh youth were killed. The
Akal Takhat had to issue a
hukamnama against Baba Gurmeet
Ram directing the Sikhs to socially
boycott him.
In 2015, when Punjab was tense
following the incidents of sacrilege in
the Malwa region, including the
burning of Guru Granth Sahib and
police firing at Kotkapura and Behbal
Kalan, the Akal Takhat jathedar was
forced to withdraw his hukamnama
against Gurmeet Ram Rahim and
granted him pardon. But this was
resented by the Sikhs and the
atmosphere in Punjab was
surcharged to such an extent that
Akal Takhat jathedar had to withdraw
the pardon granted to him.
This pardon was granted at the
instance of Sukhbir Singh Badal who
was Deputy Chief Minister and
President of the Akali Dal and his
father Parkash Singh Badal was the
Chief Minister. The exposure of this
move was made by Jathedar
Gurmukh Singh who was jathedar of
the Takhat Damdama Sahib,
Talwandi Sabo. Gurmukh Singh was
immediately removed as Jathedar of
Damdama Sahib and was
suspended. But no action has been
taken against Akal Takhat jathedar
Giani Gurbachan Singh so far for his
wrong doings.
In the 2017 Vidhan Sabha poll in
Punjab in which the SAD-BJP alliance
was decimated against the support of
Gurmeet Ram Rahim. But the
resentment among the Sikhs and the
Punjabis was so strong that dream of
Sukhbir ruling Punjab for 25 years
was dashed to the ground. His party
got only 15 seats – poor third with
Congress gaining absolute majority
and forming government with
Amarinder Singh. One fails to
understand with what face Sukhbir
Badal and his brother-in-law Bikram
Majithia have welcomed the
punishment granted to Gurmeet
Ram in the rape case!
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder
Singh has announced that the loss to
property in Punjab would be met
with the confiscation of the
properties of Baba Gurmeet.
Amarinder has succeeded in
establishing his political power in Punjab with the strong handling of
the situation in Punjab following
violence indulged in by the followers
of Gurmeet Ram Rahim.
The punishment of Gurmeet Ram
in the rape case has not lessened his
troubles as still there are two murder
cases pending against him and final
verdict would come by the end of the
year. He is allegedly involved in the
murder case of journalist
Chhatarpati who was exposing the
deeds of Baba and murder of one
Inderjit Singh who was a close loyalist
of Baba. He was killed as he was
exposing the sexual exploits of Baba
Gurmeet Ram Rahim.
Justice Surya Kant, Justice SS
Saron and Justice Avneesh
Jhingan. The bold role played by
judges of the Punjab and Haryana
High court in the case has been
widely appreciated.
Baba is also facing charges of
castrating 500 youngmen and the
case is in the Punjab and Haryana
High Court.
Besides, more and more
sensational revelations are being
made by the former employee of the
Baba.
The Dera Sacha Sauda is also
going to witness struggle for
succession at Sirsa. Baba has two
sons and three daughters. There is
one 'adopted' daughter of Baba also
who was acting as heroin in his
pictures with him. He made pictures
MSG (Messenger of God) and earned
huge money out of the same.
The Dera Sacha Sauda is all set to
witness interesting developments.
Which political party supports the
claimants only time will tell.