3,000 followers leave Sirsa dera

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Sirsa, August 27

An uneasy calm prevails in Sirsa ahead of the Special CBI Court’s judgment on the quantum of sentence against Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a rape case tomorrow. The district authorities as well as the dera management were wary of each other’s move throughout the day today.

While the district authorities are worried due to the presence of a large number of followers in the dera who could pose a threat to law and order tomorrow, the premis have apprehension that the Army or paramilitary forces may invade the dera under an operation.

The district authorities have already cut power supply to the dera and several localities on its land to force devotees to come out. They today succeeded in persuading over 3,000 followers to return home in Haryana Roadways buses. Several others are said to have left Sirsa in their own vehicles.

As the authorities have set up a barricade about 6 km from the dera towards the town and nobody is being allowed to go beyond that point, buses were brought from the other side near Nejia village, close to the dera, to ferry followers.

The authorities wanted to evacuate inmates of Shahi Betiya Basera and Shahi Asra Basera too but they were told that children refused to leave the dera.

Deputy Commissioner Prabhjot Singh directed the revenue authorities to prepare a list of the dera properties for attachment in deference to the Punjab and Haryana High Court order.

A TV journalist, who was going towards the dera this morning, alleged that some premis beat him up for making videos of the dera.

However, the Deputy Commissioner said it was a case of an altercation between two persons and it has nothing to do with the media or the dera. “We are not allowing anyone to cross the barricade. But an overzealous journalist tried moving towards the dera in his private car through narrow lanes where he hit a motorcycle, leading to a clash between him and the motorcycle riders,” he said.

Meanwhile, the district administration relaxed the curfew for five hours in and around the Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters here today, allowing people to go out for shopping and perform necessary chores. The authorities clarified that no further relaxation would be given till Tuesday morning.

11 from state among the dead

Chandigarh: The Haryana Government has released a list of 24 persons killed during the violence in Panchkula and Sirsa on August 25.

• The deceased include 11 each from Punjab and Haryana and one each from Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.
• These include Gurpal Singh, Darwara Singh and Manish Sharma (Patiala); Aman (Fazilika); Vikram Singh and Sanjeev (Kaithal); Lovepreet, alias Bagga, (Malot); Jagroop Singh (Barnala); Jai Bhagwan, Nembo, Sube Singh, Naveen, Piyare Lal and Ramesh (Jind); Vinit (Ambala); Gurdeep Singh (Karnal); Hari Singh (Bathinda); Manish (Karnal); Uggarsen (Mansa); Mukesh Kumar (Hanumangarh); Ranjeet Singh (Sangrur); Virender (Moga); Gurpyar Singh (Muktsar); and Chander Pal (Dehradun).
• Nineteen bodies have been handed over to the families after conducting their autopsy.