Special court allows CBI to quiz castrated victim in US
PANCHKULA:A special CBI court of Kapil Rathi on Wednesday allowed Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to question a castrated victim in the US state of California in connection with mass castration of Dera Sacha Sauda followers in which rape convict dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim is prime accused, along with two doctors.
This came out after the probe agency moved a formal application during the hearing of the case.
It claimed in the application that during investigation into this case, one allegedly castrated devotee Santosh Kumar Kathuria, who is settled in California, approached the CBI alleging that he was also castrated and it was done at the behest of Ram Rahim.
Kathuria’s name, CBI claimed, also figures at serial no.139 in the list of 166 castrated devotees that was handed over to them at the time of commencement of probe in 2015.
The CBI further stated that Kathuria was asked to join investigation in India but he expressed his inability to visit India because of threat from the accused (dera chief) and his supporters.
The CBI claimed that on its persuasion, Kathuria agreed to join investigation in the US. But in order to carry out investigation abroad, a ‘letter rogatory’ was required to be issued from this court to the US attorney general.
Letter rogatory is a formal request from a court in India to a foreign court for some type of judicial assistance abroad.
Hearing the matter, the court of Kapil Rathi issued letter rogatory under Section 166 A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CRPC) to allow the probe agency for investigation outside India
It directed the CBI counsel present during the hearing to forward the permission to CBI’S International Police Cooperation Cell to take up the matter with US authorities as desired by investigative officer.
DERA CHIEF APPEARS THROUGH VIDEO CONFERENCING Meanwhile, Ram Rahim appeared in the court on Wednesday through video conferencing from Rohtak’s Sunaria jail along with two other accused — Dr MP Singh and Dr Pankaj Garg.
The court apprised all of them about the nature of allegations levelled by CBI in its chargesheet filed on February 1.
As per the CBI probe, the dera chief allegedly castrated his male followers with professional help of Dr MP Singh and Dr Garg, under the false promise of realisation of God through him.
It added that mass castrations were done as the dera chief wanted his followers to stay inside the dera for rest of their lives and never question him for illegal activities.
The court handed over copies of the chargesheet to the accused and deferred the matter to March 14 for arguments on framing of charges.
The dera chief and the two doctors have been charged with criminal conspiracy (section 120-B), voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means (section 326), cheating by impersonation (section 416) and criminal intimidation (section 506).
ISSUES LETTER ROGATORY FOR US ATTORNEY GENERAL TO FACILITATE PROBE AGENCY FOR CAYYING OUT INVESTIGATION OUTSIDE INDIA