Honeypreet out on bail in 2017 P’kula dera violence case
PANCHKULA: A local court here on Wednesday granted bail to Honeypreet Insan, adopted daughter of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, in a case pertaining to violence in Haryana’s Panchkula in 2017.
Honeypreet had moved her plea on Wednesday morning, four days after a court dropped sedition charges against her and 39 others. Dera spokesperson Aditya Insan and other core committee members were also booked for the violence.
Honeypreet’s counsel Dhruv Gupta said, “The bail application was moved on the ground that as the sessions court had dropped sedition charges against her, now only bailable offences were there and it is right of every accused to seek bail.”
Another defence counsel Raj Singh Chauhan said, “The bail was granted on two surety bonds of ₹1 lakh each. The remaining five accused who are in jail will also move their bail applications in the court on Thursday.” She was in judicial custody at the Ambala central jail since October 2017. On Wednesday evening, she left the Ambala central jail in a white Toyota Fortuner.
Forty-one people were arrested by the police and 5, including Aditya Insan, were declared proclaimed offenders by a court last year.
According to a chargesheet filed by the police, Honeypreet and the 45-member dera management committee made a plan to unleash violence if Gurmeet Ram Rahim was convicted in the rape case. The conspiracy was hatched at the Dera headquarters in Sirsa at a meeting on August 17, 2017, the police said.
The August 2017 violence by dera followers led to the deaths of 42 people.
Around 200 criminal cases were registered against Dera followers and over 1,000 of them were arrested.