2 rape victims move Hc,seek life term for Ram Rahim

CHANDIGARH: Two women followers raped by the Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh on Wednesday moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking life imprisonment for the sect head sentenced to 20 years in prison.

A special CBI court on August 28 had sentenced Ram Rahim Singh to 20 years in prison after his conviction in two rape cases.

“A revision petition has been filed in the Punjab and Haryana High court for the enhancement of sentence for Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh to life imprisonment in a rape case,” said victims’ counsel Navkiran Singh here.

“In this case, the Dera sect chief was considered as ‘Pita Ji’ (father) by his followers. Victims were under the emotional and physical custody of Dera chief and he broke their trust and misused his position as a religious and spiritual leader. Therefore, we sought life imprisonment instead of a 20-year sentence,” the counsel further said.

CBI Judge Jagdeep Singh had pronounced two sentences of 10 years rigorous imprisonment in each of the two cases that date back to 2002.

Besides, the court had also fined him Rs 15 lakh in each of the two cases.

Ram Rahim was convicted by the special CBI court on August 25, following which violence and arson had erupted in Panchkula and Sirsa districts which left 41 people dead and scores of injured.

Ram Rahim is currently lodged in Sunaria jail in Rohtak district of Panchkula.

A court in Panchkula remanded Honeypreet Insan in six-day police custody on Wednesday in connection with the violence that followed the Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief’s rape conviction on August 25, which left 41 people dead and scores injured.

Priyanka Taneja (36), alias Honeypreet, who calls herself the adopted daughter of Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, was arrested from Zirakpur-patiala road in Punjab on October 3.

I am an elected chief minister, not a terrorist ARVIND KEJRIWAL