DEMONESTISED NOTES AND DRUGS WITHOUT LABELS SEIZED IN DERA
A luxury car without a registration plate and old currency notes were on Friday seized from the headquarters here of the Sacha Sauda Dera, a sect whose head is in jail after being convicted for rape, an official said. In a mammoth search operation was being carried out by security forces and district authorities, some rooms were also sealed and hard disk drives and unlabelled medicines recovered, Haryana's Information and Public Relations Deputy Director, Satish Mehra, who has been authorised by the administration to speak to the media, said. The exercise is being conducted amid tight security by police and paramilitary personnel, besides senior officials of various government departments. "Some rooms have been sealed, computer hard disk drives, unregistered Lexus car, an OB van, Rs 7,000 of demonetised currency, Rs 12,000 cash and some pharma medicines without labels or a brand name are among other items which have been seized," he said.
Mehra said forensic teams had reached Sirsa from Karnal and Sonipat, while forensic experts had also been called in from Roorkee in Uttarakhand.
The process, which began around 8 AM, is being videographed and monitored by retired District and Sessions Judge AK S Pawar, who was appointed as a Court Commissioner by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday to oversee the exercise. Curfew remains in force on roads leading to the Dera headquarters. The roads are also blocked and no unauthorised person is being allowed to move towards the Dera premises.
Mobile Internet services have been suspended in Sirsa district till September 10 to curb the spread of rumours in view of the drive, and to prevent the disturbance of public order. Journalists were stopped at the Shah Satnam Singh Chowk, about 7km from the headquarters.