Finally, Honeypreet in net

Rajinder Nagarkoti

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, October 3

The Haryana Police arrested Honeypreet Insan, the adopted daughter of jailed Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, near Zirakpur in Punjab today.

Panchkula Commissioner of Police Arshinder Singh Chawla said Honeypreet would be produced in a court tomorrow and the police would seek her remand to probe her role in the conspiracy to incite violence in Panchkula on August 25. Thirty-five persons were killed and over 200 injured in the violence.

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Honeypreet was arrested in connection with FIR number  345 registered at the Sector 5 police station in Panchkula. Dera spokesperson Aditya Insan, who is also on the run, is also an accused in that case, along with four other top dera functionaries.

Chawla said Honeypreet was arrested around 3 pm outside a gurdwara on the Zirakpur-Patiala road. She was arrested by the SIT team led by ACP Mukesh Malhotra. Women police personnel were present at the time of her arrest. Chawla said the police would act against those who provided shelter to Honeypreet over the past 38 days. The woman driving the Innova car in which Honeypreet was travelling, identied as Sukhpreet of Bathinda, has also been arrested for harbouring Honeypreet.

The burqa-clad woman, shown by some TV channels visiting a Delhi advocate’s office recently, was not Honeypreet, Chawla claimed.

Honeypreet, alias Priyanka Taneja, had gone into hiding soon after large-scale violence in parts of Haryana, Punjab and Delhi on August 25 following Gurmeet Singh’s conviction in two rape cases. 

Meanwhile, the Punjab Government has categorically denied reports that Honeypreet was in Punjab Police custody or was, in any way, being shielded by it. 

Questioning begins

• Cops have started questioning Honeypreet at Sector 23 Chandimandir Police Station
• Police Commissioner AS Chawla is personally supervising the questioning 

Shown in bad light by media: Honeypreet

• In an interview to a TV news channel, Honeypreet said she would surrender in a Panchkula court and file an application for bail in HC
• Alleging that she was shown in bad light by the media, she said the government had wrongly implicated her in a sedition case
• She said she went with her father (Gurmeet Singh) to the court like any daughter would do, and that too, with government’s permission