Dera computers tampered with, cops arrest IT head

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 12

Computers of Dera Sacha Sauda were tampered with and hard disks removed or altered before the sect’s headquarters at Sirsa were searched under the supervision of a court commissioner appointed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. 

The Sirsa police seized 60 such hard disks on the information provided by Vineet Kumar, the dera’s IT head, who was arrested today. While accompanying the search teams earlier, he had been evasive in his replies, rousing suspicion. He was summoned by the police for questioning on Monday.

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“During interrogation, he spilled the beans, confessing that the dera authorities had changed several hard disks before the search operation. A bag containing 60 such disks was found on the basis of inputs provided by him,” said a senior police officer. 

The police also arrested the driver of the Lexus SUV car belonging to the dera that was torched near Phoolkan village on the evening of August 28, the day dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment for rape.

“Harmel Singh, who was arrested from Rajasthan, has been booked him under Sections 435, 201 and 120-B of the IPC for causing damage and destroying evidence,” police sources said. He tried to mislead the police, claiming the SUV had caught fire because of a chemical kept inside. 

Meanwhile, a family belonging of Tiwala village in Charkhi Dadri which had alleged their daughter Shradhha was being illegally detained at the dera, met the girl today in the presence of senior district officials. “The girl lost her parents and her uncle left her with the dera orphange. She refused to go with her cousin, choosing to go to Ratia with  a woman devotee,” said SDM PS Chahal.