Journalist who ‘exposed rapes’ was murdered
Even as the limelight now is on a rape case against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim 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 at his residence on October 24, 2002, months after the paper published an anonymous letter narrating how women finding solace in the dera as sadhvis were sexually harassed and raped by the dera chief. His son Anshul has been fighting the legal battle that has now reached final arguments in the same CBI court at Panchkula that will declare its verdict in 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 dera 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 to go for justice after the police did not include the name of the dera chief in the FIR.” He finally petitioned the Punjab and Haryana high court for a CBI 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 dera 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!”