PROVIDE DOCUMENTS ATTACHED WITH CHALLAN TO RAM RAHIM: HC TO SIT

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday asked the special investigation team (SIT) of Punjab Police to provide documents attached with the chargesheet in the 2015 sacrilege cases to Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim.

The directions were given by the bench of justice Anoop Chitkara during hearing of a bunch of pleas filed by the dera head.

The police have been directed to provide all such documents that have been “relied upon” in the chargesheet against the dera head, his counsel R Kartikeya said after the hearing, adding that the police have also been asked to hand over the hard copies as well as the soft copies of such documents in the pen drive to the dera head’s counsel. A detailed order is awaited.

The court disposed of revision petitions filed by the dera head against a lower court order in which his demand was not accepted.

As per the pleas, the police had supplied 283 pages regarding original chargesheet and 53 pages regarding supplementary chargesheet but allegedly withheld crucial documents which were in his favour.

The plea also demanded that copy of the inquiry commission report along with all the documents and statements of the witnesses as recorded by justice (retd) Zora Singh commission and inquiry commission report of justice (retd) Ranjit Singh commission along with all the documents and statement of witnesses recorded and filed should be provided.

Three incidents of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib were reported in Faridkot district of Punjab in 2015, leading to protests in Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan. On October 14, 2015, two anti-sacrilege protesters were killed in Behbal Kalan in alleged police firing.

As per Punjab Police, the dera head has emerged as a main conspirator.

The Punjab Police remained unsuccessful in bringing Ram Rahim, who is lodged in Sunaria jail of Rohtak since August 25, 2017, after conviction in rape and murder cases, to the state, mainly due to security reasons.