Castrated devotee asks court to withhold identity of victims

PANCHKULA: Fearing social stigma, a castrated devotee of rape convict Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh moved an application in the CBI court of Kapil Rathi here for withholding names of all castrated sadhus named in this case during the trial.

The court has asked CBI and defence counsel to file reply before next hearing on April 19.

As per the chargesheet filed by CBI on February 1 in which the dera chief is the prime accused along with two key aides, a dera follower-turned-complainant Hans Raj Chauhan submitted a list containing names of 166 dera followers who had allegedly being castrated at the behest of Ram Rahim.

The CBI claimed that 128 of these allegedly castrated devotees were contacted and examined during the probe and six of them deposed against the dera chief and revealed that they were castrated at his behest by Dr MP Singh and Dr Pankaj Garg. The applicant said that their identities should be protected as they were the unfortunate victim of the crime.

“He has sought the status as given to rape victim for all those examined or probed in this case. It will be taken up during next hearing,” said a counsel privy to his application.

The petition by Chauhan in the Punjab and Haryana high court led to a CBI probe in 2015.

FRAMING OF CHARGES

Currently, the matter is underway for framing of charges against the accused.

The CBI charged Ram Rahim and the other two for criminal conspiracy (120-B), voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means (section 326), besides cheating (section 416) and criminal intimidation (section 506). The CBI added that the dera chief adopted these tactics to pressure the young and poor devotees to acquiesce to his unethical demands such as “…if they wanted to live in the dera they had to get themselves castrated.”