Ram Rahim murder cases: On witness plea, High Court asks CBI court to put final order on hold
Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh (Express photo by Jaipal Singh) Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh (Express photo by Jaipal Singh)
THE PUNJAB and Haryana High Court on Friday stayed the trial court’s final order in the murder cases, which are in the final stages of argument, against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim and sought a response from the CBI on his former driver’s plea of recalling him as witness in the cases.
Justice Surinder Gupta, during the resumed hearing of the case, adjourned it to October 31 after going through the proposed statement of Gurmeet’s former driver Khatta Singh, who has moved the High Court seeking a review of the trial court order in which the Special CBI Judge had rejected his appeal of recording his statement afresh in the case.
“My only prayer is that I am an important witness in the case,” Khatta’s counsel told the HC bench, adding he could not make the statement before because Gurmeet was quite influential in the region as both Punjab and Haryana governments depended on his votes.
Khatta, in his affidavit detailing the proposed statement, has said that as driver of the bus in which Gurmeet travelled, he became close to the Dera head and would take him to both the Deras in Sirsa and other places for satsang. He has also claimed to have knowledge about the murders of a rape survivor’s brother and journalist Ram Chander Chhatarpati.
Stating that on June 16, 2002, Gurmeet and some members of the Dera management had summoned one of the rape survivors’ brother to the Dera on the suspicion that he had circulated the anonymous letter exposing Gurmeet’s crimes, Khatta has said they were pressuring him to apologise for the alleged act and when he did not follow the diktat, a meeting, where his murder was planned, was called in the evening.
“At this meeting, a detailed discussion took place on the behavior of the rape survivor’s brother and asked all [of] them to go to his village and kill him before he does and says anything against the Dera,” Khatta has said in the affidavit, adding the murder was executed next month.
Khatta, in the affidavit, has also said that Gurmeet was very angry with the slain journalist, Chattarpati, after he had published a report on October 23, 2002, about the sexual exploitation of women disciples at the Dera. He said he was privy to the conversation where Gurmeet asked some of his followers to “somehow make Ram Chander Chhattarpati stop talking forever so that he would not be able to write against him and the Dera in future”.
Though Khatta had recorded his statement as prosecution witness in June 2007, he later retracted from it in 2012. Khatta has said he had to retract his statement because of the insecurity and threat from Gurmeet. The High Court on October 3 had sought an affidavit from Khatta on the proposed changes he wanted to make in the statement.
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