The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Flashy guru convicted of journalist’s murder
Chhatrapati gunned down after printing allegations in 2002.
In the fall of 2002, Indian journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati had a bombshell scoop that scared even his employees at the Hindi-language newspaper he ran in Sirsa, a city in the country’s north corner not far from the border with Pakistan.
Chhatrapati was set to print allegations that Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, a powerful holy man leading a popular religious sect, was sexually abusing his followers.
“Sir, do not publish such dangerous news report, someone will shoot you one day,” an employee told Chhatrapati, his son, Anshul, would later recount to The Print magazine.
“A real reporter takes the bullet,” Chhatrapati said, according to his son.
On Oct. 24, 2002, five days after the article was published, the 53-year-old journalist was gunned down by members of Singh’s sect, Dera Sacha Sauda. But Chhatrapati’s work would be the first move in a series that would eventually bring down Singh, known as the “guru of bling.”
In August 2017, a court in the city of Panchkula found Singh guilty of raping two women who had belonged to his sect. When the verdict was announced, hundreds of thousands of Dera followers rioted across India. As The Washington Post reported at the time, 28 people were killed and 250 injured in the uproar.
Now, the flashy guru has been held accountable for the journalist’s murder. Currently serving a 20-year sentence for the rape convictions, Singh, 51, and three followers were convicted of the murder earlier this month. On Thursday, all four men were sentenced to life in prison for the crime, the Times of India reported.
“This is the triumph of truth, I feel relieved today,” Anshul Chhatrapati told the Indian Express. “The prosecution had demanded capital punishment, but we’re satisfied with the punishment.”
Singh fully lived up to his “guru of bling” nickname.
The Dera sect started in April 1948, an organization that worked to “encourage spiritual awakening among the masses, to uplift humanity, and to create a better world,” according to the Dera’s website. The group’s mission, the site says, defines the sect as a “Social Welfare & Spiritual Organization that preaches and practices humanitarianism and selfless services to others.”
Born in 1967, Singh rose to the top of the Dera group in September 1990. He took a rock-star approach to the work of a holy man.
Chhatrapati’s devotion to journalistic truth itself verged on religious.
“He was a law graduate and had a short stint in the legal profession before starting out as a journalist,” his son told The Print in 2017. “As an advocate, he never got the job satisfaction he had been looking for. Then he quit his practice and started writing.”
The son added: “He told us that lawyers often resort to lies and manipulate facts and hence, he left that profession.”
Chhatrapati chaffed against the strictures of writing for others, so he decided to start up his own regional daily newspaper. He called it Poora Sach, which translates to “The Complete Truth,” the BBC reported.
The dedication to truth led the journalist to begin tracking down reports on Singh’s behavior. According to India Express, in May 2002, his newspaper published anonymous claims from Dera followers about sexual exploitation.
The reporting continued throughout the year. On the afternoon of Oct. 24, 2002, Chhatrapati returned home from work, then heard men calling for him outside. When he stepped into the street, he was gunned down.