Journalist who ‘exposed rapes’ was murdered
Even as the lime light now is on a rape case against Der a Sac ha Saud a chief G ur meet Ram Ra him Singh, a bereaved son too awaits justice for the murder of his father, journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati, who had exposed the alleged rape of ‘sadhvis’ (female followers) at the dera 15 years ago.
Chhatrapati was shot from point-blank range a this residence on October 24,2002, months after the paper published an anonymous letter narrating how women finding so lace in the der a assadhv is were sexually harassed and raped by the der a chief. His son Anshulh as been fighting the legal battle that has now reached final arguments in the same CB I court at Pan ch ku lat hat will declare its verdictin the rape case on August 25.
This is one of two murder cases against Ram Rahim, the other being for the killing of Ranjit Singh,a former der a member, in July 2002 as he had highlighted alleged wrongdoings inside the dera headquarters at Sirsa, including sexual exploitation of female devotees by some people in the sect’s management.
Chhatrapati’s son, Anshul said, “I was 21 then, and did not know where togo for justice after the police did not include the name of the der a chief in the FIR .” He finally petitioned the Punjab and Ha ryan a high court for aC BI inquiry in 2003.
For him, threats and pressures loomed large amid his struggle to carry on his slain father’s local Hindi newspaper, ‘Poora Sacch’ (Whole Truth), for 12 years after the tragedy .“My father fought for life in the hospital for 28 days after they pumped bullets into his body, and he had named the der a chief as the accused in his statement to the local police. But the cops did not include the dera chief’s name in the FIR, and the legal battle began from there ,” he detailed.
Fifteen years on, nervousness was visible on Anshul’s face on Thursday, as he supervised the installation of CCTV cameras at his Sirsa residence. Why the renewed security now ?“There is a verdict tomorrow in the case that my father had exposed!”