CBI must probe castration of Sacha Sauda followers: HC

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 23

The Punjab and Haryana High Court today ordered a CBI probe into the alleged castration of 400 followers of Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

The court rapped the Haryana Police for “letting grass grow under their feet” by conducting “worthless investigations” into the case filed by Fatehabad district resident Hans Raj Chauhan two years ago. Chauhan had alleged that dera doctors castrated him and 400 others by making them believe that they could achieve God through the dera head if they offered themselves for castration.

A petition was also filed by the Lawyers for Human Rights International, an NGO, through counsel Navkiran Singh, giving a list of 166 persons allegedly castrated.

The court also noticed that Ram Rahim had failed to appear for hearings since 2007 in other cases filed against him.

The “missing godman”

Justice K Kannan said “there had not been a single instance when the respondent appeared in person in court” ever since cases were filed against him on October 27, 2007. “There have been consistent applications for exemption from personal appearance and the court has been acceding to such requests….”
He said pleas filed on the behalf of the dera head always showed him either unwell or busy with religious ceremonies. “There have been attempts to record his statement through video conferencing, but he always pled exemption,” he said.
Police ‘slackness’
Justice Kannan observed that the police were expected to gather details from the surgeons who had allegedly castrated the followers and interrogate Ram Rahim. “One would expect the police to first record the statement of the petitioner, then the respondent about his version to know whether there was any other inmate in the ashram who was castrated and whether he had any knowledge of the same and spread the net of investigation to the specified 166 persons…,” he said.
“The state police have done no credit to themselves by allowing grass to grow under their feet and nibbling at the periphery and conducting investigation which is worthless…. The clout that a person enjoys with patronage lying outside the spiritual circles can make even a powerful police force go limp and effete,” he said.
The ruling
Drawing a parallel between the case in hand and “frozen godman” Ashutosh’s matter, Justice Kannan asserted faith in matters of religion was subject to public order, morality and health. Whether castration would make room for salvation could not be a matter of faith, “the same way as whether a person is dead or in a trance akin to samadhi, cannot be a matter of faith”.
He said: “Superstitions are now a constitutional anathema. Courts cannot be privies to perpetration of harm on blind faith in the name of religion.”