DERA CHIEF’S EXDRIVER MOVES HC

CHANDIGARH Khatta Singh, a former driver of Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, moved the Punjab and Haryana high court challenging the decision of a Panchkula court that dismissed his plea to depose again against the sect head in the ongoing trial in two murder cases.

The special CBI court had dismissed his plea on September 26. Khatta Singh had earlier been roped in as the CBI’s crucial witness after the dera chief and his men were booked for allegedly killing dera follower Ranjit Singh and journalist Ram Chandra Chattrapati in 2002. He had claimed that he was privy to some meetings in which the so-called godman had ordered his men to eliminate Ranjit and Chattrapati. He turned hostile during the testimony before the court in February 2012, denying any knowledge of the dera chief’s involvement in these cases.

Khatta’s counsel Navkiran Singh said, “He is an important witness in the case. He had said that he saw the sect head ordering to kill those who were murdered. He should be allowed to depose before the court.”