Of anonymous letter that did dera chief in

CHANDIGARH: An anonymous letter addressed to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2002, with a copy to the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, had led to registration of three cases against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh — of rape, and of the murders of Ram Chander Chhatrapati and Ranjit Singh.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 12

An anonymous letter addressed to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2002, with a copy to the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, had led to registration of three cases against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh — of rape, and of the murders of Ram Chander Chhatrapati and Ranjit Singh.

The dera chief has been sentenced to 20-year rigorous imprisonment in the rape case and convicted for the murder of Chhatrapati, editor of ‘Poora Sach’ newspaper in Sirsa. The quantum of sentence will be pronounced on January 17.

Though the Prime Minister’s Office did not act on the letter, the High Court marked an inquiry, which led to registration of a rape case.

The CBI contended that the dera chief had ordered Chhatrapati’s murder for publishing news stories related to the letter. According to the CBI, he also suspected Ranjit Singh, a former dera follower, to be behind the circulation of the letter and ordered his murder too.

The Ranjit Singh murder case is still pending.

The letter alleged sexual abuse of sadhvis by the dera chief. The writer mentioned how she was called into his cave at about 10 pm, where he was watching porn and had kept a revolver. She said Ram Rahim threatened to kill her if she did not submit herself. He also bragged about his political links and how the Chief Ministers of both Haryana and Punjab touched his feet.

The letter claimed women followers were exploited as their family members blindly believed in Ram Rahim. It also spoke of how a woman follower from Bathinda who raised her voice was badly beaten up.

“I can’t stay silent and neither do I want to die. But I want to bring truth before the public. If you get it investigated, then 40-45 girls, who are in fear, could reveal the truth. We should be medically examined so our parents know who destroyed us,” it said.

CBI counsel HPS Verma said, “The letter was typed. It didn’t come out who wrote it.”

The letter was sent by mail to Raja Ram Handiya and Balwant Singh of Tarksheel Society in May 2002. On May 19, 2002, a meeting of Taraksheel Society was held at Kurukshetra in which this letter was discussed. Dera followers contacted both Handiya and Balwant Singh and got the letters from them.

They suspected Ranjit Singh, who was of the same village as Balwant Singh, to be behind circulation of the letter. Dera followers beat up Handiya on June 2, 2002. Ranjit Singh was murdered on July 10.