Journalism of Courage
The Haryana police appear to have no plan as yet to conduct searches in the sprawling headquarters of Dera Sacha Sauda in Sirsa. After the conviction of dera head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, police, paramilitaries and Army have surrounded the dera. Nakas have been installed at the roads leading to the dera by the security forces. Earlier in the week, officials said they were avoiding entering the dera to avoid a “possible backlash” because there were still thousands of people inside. However, all dera followers have now left the premises.
A government official said they had received no orders from seniors to enter the dera. Haryana DGP B S Sandhu said: “We are monitoring the situation. We don’t want to take any decision in a hurry. Six persons were killed in Sirsa during recent violence. The Sirsa DC and SP will take a call whether to enter the dera premises.”
Anshul Chhatarpati, son of journalist Ram Chander Chhatarpati, who was killed allegedly at the behest of Ram Rahim Singh in 2002, said the police was “dragging its feet”. “What’s the problem in searching the dera now? The Army should be given free hand to search the dera. There is every possibility of weapons and black money inside the dera,” he said.
The Haryana Police have already sanitised 103 “Naam Charcha Ghars (congregation centres)” of Dera Sacha Sauda in different districts, and recovered 14 motorcycles, one tractor, four other two-wheelers and one car, besides a large cache of weapons. A senior officer of the security forces, who was associated with the recent deployment, said, “Ideally, by now, the search should have been conducted.”
Days after the bloody confrontation between the police and “black commandos” of self-styled godman Sant Rampal at his “Satlok Ashram” in Hisar district in November 2014, the Punjab and Haryana High Court, while hearing a case related to his ashram, had also taken note of a report of Army’s intelligence unit regarding the activities of Dera Sacha Sauda. Quoting the “shocking internal communication” by a Lt. Colonel (intelligence), the high court had observed, “… it has been succinctly stated that some ex-servicemen were engaging themselves in imparting weapons training to the activities to the activists of Dera Sacha Sauda at their headquarters at Sirsa”.
“…Religious places are meant only to impart religious discourses and not for giving training to private commandos to protect the head of Dera/Ashram. At any rate, it cannot be used as a dumping ground of arms and ammunition. We are of the considered view that the training of private commandos and arming them with illegal weapons to protect some individuals would definitely pose a challenge not only to the Judiciary, but also to the State at large. Search of Dera to unearth illegal arms and ammunitions and monitoring the activities of Dera on periodical basis is the absolute need of the hour to avoid future bloody confrontation and also to safeguard the interest of public at large and State,” the HC had stated, adding that the observations by it in connection with the dera be taken as a Public Interest Litigation.
After the HC observations, officials say, a search was conducted inside the dera by a committee headed by a SDM-level officer and report was submitted to the high court. The police had not found any evidence of weapons being stored or followers being trained when it searched the dera, say sources.
“The previous search was just an eye-wash as it was conducted in the presence of dera men. If some arms and ammunition are recovered from the dera now, it may create embarrassing situation to the government because previously it had given a clean chit to the dera,” said Anshul Chhatrapati, who alleged the dera was being allowed to get away.
However, a senior police officer said, “There are contrary opinions on entering the dera. A final decision would be taken collectively.” When contacted, Sirsa Deputy Commissioner Prabhjot Singh said, “The situation is tense but under control. And we are relaxing curfew in front of the dera for two hours. Whenever the situation is fully controlled, we will be taking next step.”
The dera management has always termed allegations of weapons training inside the dera as baseless. “The training was imparted to tackle the natural calamities and accidents like fire and floods. These false allegations were levelled to defame the dera,” said an official of dera’s media wing.
