Illegal fire cracker factory found inside dera premises
An illegal fire cracker factory was found on the second day of a massive sanitisation exercise inside the deraof rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh on Saturday.
Hordes of police, paramilitary and civil administration personnel were involved in the mammoth search operation which started on Friday on the direction of Punjab and Haryana High Court.
“A fire cracker factory has been found inside the premises and it is an illegal factory,” said state Information and Public Relations Department Deputy Director, Satish Mehra, who has been authorised by the administration to speak to the media. He said some explosive materials, used for making fire crackers, were also found.
“The illegal factory has been sealed,” Mehra said.
An unregistered luxury car and some banned currency notes were seized from the deraof Singh during the sanitisation exercise on Friday, which also involved forensic examination of his so-called cave where he allegedly used to sexually exploit women.
Besides, some rooms were also sealed and hard disk drives and unlabelled medicines recovered during the 12-hour day long exercise.
The entire sanitisation process is being videographed and overseen by retired District and Sessions Judge, A K S Pawar, who was appointed as Court Commissioner by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday.
Curfew remains in force on the road leading inside the dera headquarters. No unauthorised person was being allowed to go inside the dera premises. However, life remained normal in Sirsa city.
A large number of vehicles including police buses and paramilitary vehicles, quick reaction team vehicles, bomb disposal squad and anti-sabotage team vehicles, carrying cops and paramilitary personnel made their way inside the dera premises this morning, officials said.
Vehicles of the district administration carrying officials drawn from various government departments also made their way inside the Dera premises.
Some fire tenders, heavy earth moving machines and tractors have also been pressed into service for the sanitisation exercise.
Sixteen nakashave been set up near the dera and forty-one companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed in Sirsa district.
A number of dera followers who had parted ways with the sect head, have reportedly told the media earlier that except for the dera chief and his close aides, nobody was allowed to enter the ‘Gufa’ or private residence.