Relieved, victim kin wait for murder case verdict
Kurukshetra, Aug. 29: Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh exploited scores of female disciples but the tortured victims stayed silent due to a feeling of “community shame”, says the woman who dared to challenge the self-styled godman. But she and her family had to cope with countless threats and mental pressure for 15 years, the victim says. To add tragedy to trauma, her brother was murdered.
Now, with Ram Rahim Singh behind bars, sentenced to 20 years in prison in connection with the sexual exploitation of the victim and another woman, an atmosphere of jubilation prevails in a village along the GT road, around 10 kms from here.
The victim, whose family lives here, said that they had been connected with the Dera for 40 years since Baba Satnam Singh was its head. She was teaching in a school being run by the Dera and the real face of the sect chief Ram Rahim Singh stood exposed before her in 1999 when she came to know that innocent girls were being sexually abused. Girls were deployed as security persons at the entrance of a ‘Guffa’ (cave) where the Dera chief used to stay and she too was deployed there, the victim said. She started noticing that some of the girls coming out of the ‘Guffa’ would be weeping. Later, the Dera chief eyed her and she was sexually exploited, the woman claimed. She disclosed it to her parents who were aware of the Dera chief's power and sent her back to their village.
“The Dera chief sexually abused a large number of girls but they kept silent due to community shame,” she told PTI.
The victim claimed that when the CBI started probing the case on the basis of an anonymous letter, she got her statement recorded so that the Dera chief gets punished for his misdeeds.