6 castrated devotees deposed: Chargesheet

The CBI chargesheet in castration row filed on February 1 revealed that six castrated devotees had deposed against dera sacha sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim for his alleged involvement in this case. They said that they had been castrated against their wish at the behest of Gurmeet Ram Rahim and two doctors Dr MP Singh and Dr Pankaj Garg inside dera-run institutions. Probe shows that surgery was done at Shah Satnam Ji General Hospital in Rajasthan’s Gurusar Modia and other places inside Sirsa based dera. CBI team carried spot inspections of operation theatres and observed that these were fully equipped.

‘MAKE DEVOTEES DEPENDENT ON DERA’

The document adds that the dera chief resorted to castration of sewadars from 1999-2000 onwards to emasculate them so that they could not leave Dera and become entirely dependent upon them for the rest of their lives. It also revealed that dera chief promoted castration to ensure male devotees stayed away from female devotees.

The document also quotes an incident of 1999, when Sukhdev Singh Diwana, a member of the managing committee, caught a devotee Baljinder Singh, alias Jidda, stalking woman devotees.

An angry Gurmeet had publicly threatened followers with castration, the chargesheet adds. “Gurmeet Ram Rahim, with the malicious intention of getting castrated these young devotees, played with their emotions. He adopted threatening tactics to pressure the young and poor devotees …if they wanted to live in dera they had to get themselves castrated,” the chargesheet states.

“He was more accessible to the castrated devotees and met the young to inspire them for castration.” The castrated male devotees were deployed to safeguard his dwelling place, the Gufa, and for security of dwelling places of the female devotees.

As per CBI, he also made castrated devotees sign general power of attorney that authorised his protégés to purchase/ gift any land. Later, the property was gifted to the dera.