Were told to target public buildings: Dera men in custody
SANGRUR:Two followers of the Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda on Monday said — while in police custody — that they were told to target public buildings in the Malwa region of Punjab if their chief, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, was held guilty in the rape case on August 25.
“We attended a meeting in Sirsa at 2am on August 17 and were told to target public buildings if the verdict went against our Guruji,” Duni Chand, the main accused, told the reporters while in police custody. He was arrested on Sunday along with his accomplice, Ranjit Singh, for triggering violence in Punjab’s southern districts of Sangrur, Barnala, Patiala, Mansa and Bathinda, adjoining Haryana. Ranjit Singh was allegedly the link between Duni Chand and local dera followers.
SSP Mandeep Singh Sidhu told reporters here that Chand, a resident of Sherpur, was arrested along with Ranjit from the outskirts of Gujran near Dirba. Both are dera followers since 1994.
“Rakesh Kumar, who lives in the Sirsa dera and was in touch with the dera head, had formed an eight-member ‘A-team’ to spark off violence in Malwa in case of an adverse verdict. Chand was a member of that team,” Sidhu said.
A sum of Rs 1.7 lakh, pepper sprays and dera literature was recovered from the car Chand was driving. The other absconding members of the team are Major Singh of Mansa, Balwinder Singh and Gurdev Singh of Bathinda, Prithi Chand of Baghapurana, Mahinderpal Bittu of Kotkapura, Gurdas Singh of Kot Bhai in Bathinda, and Gurjit Singh of Moga.
“Like me, many others fell in the dera management’s trap and got ready to burn our own state,” Chand told reporters while in custody. On August 23, two days before the conviction of the dera head, Ranjit Singh even attended a meeting called by the district police chief at the Police Lines to maintain law and order.
Fifty-nine dera followers have been arrested in the district so far. They have been booked for attempt to murder besides damaging public and private property in the district. The police have impounded 22 motorcycles and three cars in this connection.