Dera Chief Acted Like a Wild Beast, Does Not Deserve Mercy: Judge
While sentencing Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh to 20 years in jail, the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court held that he did not spare his own disciples and “acted like a wild beast”. According to the judge, Gurmeet does not deserve any mercy.
“Both the victims put the convict on the pedestal of ‘God’ and revered him like that only,” observed special CBI judge Jagdeep Singh in his judgment released late on Monday evening.
“However, he committed breach of gravest nature by sexually assaulting such gullible and blind followers. Such criminal acts of the convict, who is stated to be heading a religious organisation, are bound to shatter images of pious and sacred spiritual, social, cultural and religious institutions existing in the country since time immemorial, which in turn reflects irreparable damages caused by the acts of the convicts to the heritage of this ancient land.”
Rejecting the Dera head’s plea for sympathy, he said, “Undue sympathy to impose inadequate sentence would do more harm to the justice dispensation system to undermine the public confidence in the efficacy of law.”
He said that the courts were obliged to “curtail evil”. He observed that though punishment was designed to protect society by “deterring potential offenders as also by preventing the guilty party from repeating the offence, it is also designed to reform the offender and reclaim him as a law
Such criminal acts of the convict, who is stated to be heading a religious organisation, are bound to shatter images of pious and sacred spiritual, social, cultural and religious institutions existing in the country since time immemorial... Jagdeep Singh Central Bureau of Investigation judge
abiding citizen for the good of the society”.
“Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim is stated to be head of Dera which runs a number of institutions in which 7-8 thousand are working. He has been visiting abroad for the promotion of his movies. Such facts established that the convict has no dearth of money and is a man possessing huge pelf and has huge financial resources to compensate the victims of his criminal act,” Judge Jagdeep Singh observed.
Justifying the sentence, the judge quoted Mahatma Gandhi as saying, “To call woman the weaker sex is a libel; it’s man’s injustice to woman. If by strength is meant brute strength, indeed, is woman less brute than man.
“If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is immediately man’s superior. Has she not greater intuition, is she more selfsacrificing, has she not greater powers of endurance, has she not greater courage? Without her, man could not be. If non-violence is the law of our being, the future is with woman.”