The SIT probing the 2015 Bargari sacrilege case has, for the first time, obtained a production warrant for Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim.
A court in Faridkot has issued a production warrant on FIR No. 29 October. In 2015, 63 were registered in Bajakhana for theft of Guru Granth Sahib from village Burj Jawahar Singh Wala in Faridkot district.
While the court of First Class Judicial Magistrate Tarjini has accepted the SIT’s application for a production warrant, it remains to be seen whether the Punjab Police will bring the Dera chief to Faridkot in person or use the video conferencing facility.
The rape and murder convict has been lodged in Rohtak’s Sunaria jail since 2017 and is appearing for court hearings in various cases filed against him through video conferencing.
“Punjab Police’s application for production warrant has been allowed. The police have been asked to produce Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim on production warrant in the Faridkot court on October 29,” said assistant district attorney Pankaj Taneja.
“If they seek police remand of the Dera Sacha Sauda chief on October 29, it will be the prerogative of the SIT,” he said.
This was the first time that the Punjab Police had sought a production warrant for the Dera chief in the sacrilege case.
Earlier, former SIT chief Kunwar Vijay Pratap had obtained permission to interrogate the Dera chief in the Kotkapura police firing case related to the sacrilege case in Sunaria jail back in 2019. However, the Dera chief was never questioned.
This time, the SIT has sought the production warrant of the Dera chief only a week after receiving the statement of the alleged witness in the sacrilege case under Section 164 of the CrPC. In their statement, the witnesses have alleged that the Dera chief was behind the sacrilege incident.
The SIT had made Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim an accused in the said FIR in July, 2020. However, no warrant was issued then. Earlier this year, the SIT had arrested seven Dera Sacha Sauda followers in a single FIR and also filed a chargesheet against them.
The Dera Sacha Sauda chief has not been to Punjab since 2007, when he first joined the Sikh community for wearing the same outfit as Guru Gobind Singh and a case was also registered against him in Bathinda for hurting Sikh sentiments. Was.
He was interrogated in that case, but later the Punjab Police asked the court to quash that FIR, just three days before the 2012 assembly elections.
Dera followers intensified efforts to organize a congregation of their spiritual heads in Punjab, particularly in 2015 and 2017.
However, those efforts were in vain following incidents of sacrilege and subsequent punishment of the Dera chief.
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