Soon, police to quiz dera chairperson Vipassana

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 13

With needle of suspicion for tampering with computers and CCTV footage pointing towards top management of Dera Sacha Sauda, the Sirsa police are likely to quiz dera chairperson Vipassana Insan and senior deputy chairman PR Nain soon.

The Tribune has learnt that Vineet Kumar, IT Head of the dera whose interrogation led the police to recover 65 hard discs hidden in a toilet in the agriculture fields of the dera, has named some top management officials of the sect behind the effort to destroy evidence.

Sources said that many of the hard discs had the recording of CCTV footage of what was going on in the dera on August 25 after the conviction of sect head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

Thousands of people had come out of the dera headquarters a few hours after Ram Rahim was convicted by the Special CBI Court in Panchkula on August 25.

The mob, including woman, had ransacked a power substation, set on fire Vita Milk Plant and tried to break the police barricade to enter Sirsa town for violence.

“The CCTV footage could have thrown light on who instigated the followers,” said a senior police officer.

Confirming that names of top management officials of the dera have figured in the interrogation of Vineet Kumar, the sources said that the police were planning to question Vipassana Insan and Dr PR Nain very soon.

Meanwhile, the 65 hard discs recovered by the police are in bad condition as before dumping them in a toilet, efforts were made to destroy them by hitting with some hammer or other heavy item.

“Even if the hard discs are damaged, data can still be retrieved. But real position will be known only once experts see these discs,” said the sources.

Meanwhile, after completion of his police remand, Vineet was produced before a court in Sirsa where he was sent to judicial custody.

In the case of torching of a Lexus SUV near Phoolka village, accused Harmel Singh has informed the police that another accused Bhale Ram of Hanzeera village of Sirsa was also involved in the crime.

The police raided Bhale Ram’s hideouts, but he has been absconding.

Harmel Singh has told the police that he was chief mechanic in the dera and the vehicle he torched was part of the dera chief’s cavalcade that went to Panchkula on August 25.

“We torched it out of the fear that the Panchkula police might come looking for it and we will be nabbed if something incriminating was found in it,” Harmel is said to have told the police.

The police, however, are not trusting his version and are trying to find out what exactly the evidence were which he tried to remove by torching the vehicle.

Raids on to arrest dera violence accused

A police party from Panchkula today raided hideouts of several Dera Sacha Sauda functionaries in Sirsa who are wanted in connection with violence after conviction of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

The six-member team led by Inspector Ashok Kumar went to the city police station in Sirsa first and then raided residences of several persons wanted in connection with violence at Panchkula on August 25.

The police, however, could not find anyone.

The Panchkula police, it may be recalled, had booked several persons, including dera spokesperson Aditya Insan, Pawan Insan and Dilawar Insan, all of whom are Sirsa residents.