2 women top contenders for empire
With Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh set to go behind bars, the question of will take up the mantle in his place, and be the heir to the billions of rupees worth of properties, has begun to assume significance.
The sect has a sprawling headquarter spread over 800 acres. It houses a multi-specialty hospital, a stadium and luxury vehicles. Then, there are several immovable assets spread across Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi, as well as the numerous bank accounts whose owners may or may not be the Dera chief, a rape convict since Friday. Moreover, the 69-year-old religious sect enjoys tax exemption under Section 10(23) of the IT Act,1995.
Hence, in the absence of any name declared by Singh so far, all eyes are on ‘Guru Brahmachari’ Vipasana, a 35-year-old woman believed to be the second-in-command and who will be, for a while, the sole authority calling shots on behalf of the Dera chief.
Known as ‘nambardaar’, the sole authority at the Dera headquarters, the management announces crucial programmes.
The 35-year-old woman remains the leader of the ‘nambardaar’ and controls the 250member management team at the Dera headquarters, nearly 150 of which are women. Vipasana completed her graduation from the girls’ college of the Dera management here and gradually reached the top to run the show in the absence of the chief himself.
About seven years ago, a 28-yearold woman named Honeypreet had also risen to become the Dera chief’s confidant. Besides Vipasana, Honeypreet too is now ‘Guru Brahmachari’ and has acted as one of the main protagonists in all the films directed, produced and composed by the Dera chief himself. In April 2014, Ram Vriksha Yadav took over a park in Mathura in the state of Uttar Pradesh with around 500 armed followers for a two-day protest. But members of the Swadhin Bharat Vidhik Satyagrah — and its armed wing Subhash Sena — never left, occupying the public space to turn it into what appeared to be the headquarters of a self-styled revolutionary group. The violence left 24 people dead, including the Mathura superintendent of police. The founder of Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sanstha, a spiritual non-profit organisation, Ashutosh was often involved in clashes with conservative
Sikhs who opposed his teachings, citing religious sentiments. In December 2009, a clash ensued between Sikh protesters and police over Ashutosh's religious conference in Ludhiana, leaving one dead. The police had reportedly opened fire on the protesters who had descended upon the venue with lathis and swords. Following the violence, curfew was imposed in five police station areas in the city for over two days.
Ashutosh died on January 29, 2014.